Why Go to Church?

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

In our consumer culture, I'm not surprised that people treat church like a product.  But I confess I am surprised how long time, faithful churchgoers can suddenly “kick the habit” with apparently little regret!  Whether it’s a recent, young seminary graduate who was training to be a church leader or a middle-aged individual who just got tired of putting up with someone or something undesirable in their local congregation, people are abandoning regular church attendance in record numbers.

Many New Testament passages describe local congregations of God's people conducting regular meetings to worship God and study His word. (See Acts 20:7; 11:26; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Hebrews 10:25).  These meetings are intended to provide blessings and opportunities that benefit those who attend.

In the context of growing persecution of Christians in Rome in the early-to-mid-60s, one could almost understand why Jewish believers might want to play down their distinctives as followers of Jesus and retreat to a form of worship indistinguishable from Orthodox Judaism.  Once Nero unleashed his official, state-sponsored persecution against Christians in 64 AD, they would be immune from imprisonment and martyrdom.  

Today, one can sympathize with believers from North Korea and China to Iran and Afghanistan to Morocco and the Maldives, who might likewise hide their Christian identities and not gather regularly for worship and instruction with other believers, lest they be arrested and/or killed.

Strangely, it is exactly in such circumstances where we also hear stories of great faith, great perseverance, and great sacrifice for the sake of Christ and fellow Christians, including for gathering together with them.  It’s here in the U.S., in the Western world more generally, where so much less is at stake that we offer up such pathetic reasons for not joining together with fellow believers on a regular, weekly basis.  And almost all of the excuses are anthropocentric rather than Christocentric.  That’s a fancy way of saying we’ve reworded the well-known praise song to make it say, “It’s all about me, Lord,” rather than “It’s all about you, Jesus!”

We all know the excuses.  We don’t like the style of worship or music.  We don’t like the preaching. We don’t like the new time for Sunday school.  We don’t like the way the church spends our money. More seriously, we don’t like certain people we have to see when we go there.  The list seems almost endless.  Yet the other irony is that we in the West, especially in the United States, have more choices of churches than anyone has ever had anywhere else in the history of the world!  

Before the arrival of modern transportation, the two major criteria for why a person belonged to church x (rather than church y) was because it was (a) the closest church to where they lived (b) in their denomination.  Before the Protestant Reformation, only (a) applied, except in those comparatively few places where both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy existed side-by-side.  One generally learned to work things out with the same group of people over a long period of time.

Today we are victims of our overabundance of choices.  Now hear me well.  I’m grateful for those choices.  There do come times when churches have substantially changed their beliefs or practices that for a person to be faithful to their own basic convictions they must move to a different congregation.  If that happens, then move!  But don’t just stop going anywhere.

Now, please understand, when I say that “church” as the New Testament defines it can be a house-church, it can be independent of all denominational affiliation, and it can take many creative forms and gather at many different times.  

I’m not saying all believers have to gather on Sunday morning, in a distinctive church building, with one prescribed order of service.  Not by a long shot.  But consider the implied arrogance by the person who claims to be a Christian, claims to be in submission to Scripture, and yet also claims that no existing expressions of Christianity anywhere close to them are sufficiently God-pleasing for them to favor those gatherings with their presence!

Hebrews supplies the key to how to change one’s attitude in such situations.  One goes to church not for what one can get, but what one can give.  Spur one another on toward love and good works and encourage one another.  

In evaluating your church attendance, here are some questions you should honestly ask yourself:

1. Am I really putting God first - before my own desires, before my family, and before everything else in life?

2. Am I genuinely sorry when I must miss - or would I really rather be doing something else instead of going?

3. Would I honestly be fulfilling my duty to God as well by not going as I would be by going?

4. If some "emergency" would keep me from attending, would the same circumstances keep me from other activities that are of great importance to me?

5. Am I seeking to do as much as I can for the Lord, or am I just trying to "get by" with minimal service?

6. If everyone else - including my family and loved ones - were to imitate my attendance, would they please God?

Whether or not one is regular in attendance all depends on whether or not he is really dedicated to God.  If he is not dedicated, he will probably miss services.  If he is really dedicated, he will want so much to attend that you could hardly keep him away!

“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Act 2:42)

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