Do i really need to go to church?
It’s not about me but it is for me.
The Excuse
Throughout my lifetime I have heard innumerable times people neglecting the church, claiming God is everywhere (which He is)so therefore there is no necessity to come to church to be in communion with Him, besides the church is full with hypocrites and so they don’t want to waste their time there.
So the other day my wife found this post on Facebook from a well-known author who we are very familiar with and do the title was a bit unusual (This is why I don’t go to church) she thought to herself that it could be one of those catchy titles just to get more people to read it (very common practice) but to her surprise once she finished reading the article she realized that it was not a catchy article, he really meant that, he truly believed that he gained nothing from going to church and finally he was ok with that because he still connected with God in other ways.
I got to tell you, I love when my wife rages in holy anger, I love that she gets upset when someone messes with the sound doctrine, she is not a fan, of anything or no one and she has a good reason:
“when you become a fan you are no longer objective, your passion gets in the way and your judgment is compromised, you can no longer question the person you put on a pedestal”
So allow me to share with you a few points me and her discussed about the dangers of thinking of the church in this way.
The problem
The Bible is pretty clear about the church reason and mission:
First of all the church is Jesus bride, Paul says in Ephesians 5:32 that Christ and the church are one , verse 25 says Christ loved the church so much He gave up his life for her. Heads up** insulting someone’s bride is not a smart move =P
Secondly: Matthew 16:18 says Jesus himself builds the church and not even the gates of hell will prevail against the church.
Thirdly: Hebrews 10:25 says
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
There are many more reasons but I think this should do.
Its not about me
As days go by consumption culture is more and more evident in our churches and this is a dangerous issue, we come with a client mindset not a worshiper attitude, if all we can think of is if the music was ok by my standards, was it easy to park, is the preacher cool, do they have good seats… then something is really wrong with us. We are forgetting why we come together whenever it is you do that, it’s not about me or you, we come to gather as one in God’s presence to give Him our praise.
God in His goodness blesses us and that’s awesome but if we come to seek and not to give we are getting it wrong.
And it is not just that we come to worship, in the church we find community which helps us to grow in our faith, in the church we find purpose, we come to receive instruction, to hear God’s word because ultimately as Romans 10:17 says
So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.
We come to the church to be equipped and to be sent to the world for Jesus said:
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”