I have a hard time going to church. And, I'm not afraid to say it, it's mostly because of the people. The more you go to church, the more you get involved, the more people want you to do things, the more you go to church, the more people see you, the more you go to church, the more people begin to find fault with you and before you know it it's a vicious cycle of...*insert whine* "I don't want to go to church today, they'll just make me [fill in the blank] when all I want to do is listen to the sermon and leave." Which having been raised right, I know is the wrong thing to think, but I can't help thinking it. It seems to me that churches now-a-days seem to be more concerned with the numbers (what big CRAZY thing can we do this week to get people to come?) that they've forgotten about the people who are already there. The people who bust their humps 5 days a week at a job they may or maynot love and then are being told that if they don't bust their humps at church they aren't fulfilling the destiny that God has designed for them. I feel like I am being judged by what I say or do in church everytime I go to church.
When I was in college, I loved, loved, loved, loved going to church. In a college town like Springfield, Missouri there's always a place for the college kid and in college I wasn't jaded nor did I ever feel that every church I went to wanted a piece of me or that they were more concerned with the numbers than my spirtuality or that they were gossiping about how my sins were bigger and more wrong than their sins. Part of this has to do with the fact that the church came to me...we met on Thursday or Sunday nights, going to church Sunday morning there was always a college class with donuts and coffee and guitars. What happened?
Sadly, I believe that part of it is the fact that I 'grew up' and in growing up that spark that is lit by Jesus, Himself, has been covered up by Wordly things and my Wordly attitude. When I don't go to church, I ignore the very reasons why Jesus came to this Earth.
Why are we supposed to go to church?
- 1 John 1:3 says that we are to have fellowship with the Father and with His Son and with other Christians
- 1 Peter 4:10 to share our spiritual gifts with others
- Hebrews 10:25 we must meet together to encourage one another
The New Testament is full of “one another” commands. We are to comfort one another (I Thessalonians 4:18), build up one another (I Thessalonians 5:11), confess our sins to one another (James 5:16), pray for one another (James 5:16), and many more. How can we obey these directives if we stay away from the gathering of believers?
To go to church means that we understand that there is a greater power than our own and that power doesn't exist in the numbers or the sermons or the people, but in the Lord who exist within us. All of us fall short in some fashion...the Lord does not.
Look at what the World has to say about going to church:
Survey: Non-attendees find faith outside church
A commentary on the book So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore
I am playing into this kind of mind-set when I do not attend church and I am not changing the mind-set of the Modern believer sitting on my duff on Sunday watching church on TV or on the internet. I am actually proliferating this horrible stereotype that people have of Christians, I am not doing what the Lord would have me do and I am not helping the Christian church grow.
Instead of complaining about church and not attending I must go to church and work within church to keep God as the main focus...
These are things that I'm still thinking about, I do know one thing, however, although I feel like poop (still sick from yesterday), I'm going to get the family up and we're going to church to set an example that Christians aren't perfect, Christians do question, but Christians always find the answers in God who is perfect.
Do you go to church regulary? What are your reasons for going? For not going?
Do these reasons glorify God?
