Comments from PEW Research Center:
“I’d rather be riding my motorcycle thinking about God than sitting in church thinking about my motorcycle.”
“My church is within…I choose not to attend churches in the material world as none are holy places nor do they address my beliefs.”
“I have stopped attending the church we have been members of for nearly 10 years. This is a Protestant church my husband’s family attends. I was raised Catholic but then did not attend any church for many years.”
“The reasons I have stopped attending this church include: gossip among the church members; people treating the church as more of a social clique rather than a spiritual place; an ‘inner circle’ of families and people have ‘taken over’ and seem to exclude anyone who is not part of their group; younger and older members of the church badmouthing each other and members of the staff, feeling like I suddenly no longer ‘fit in.’”
“My children are young and I am most concerned about their spiritual development. I tried attending other churches with them but they felt odd about being in new environments.”
“I most recently have decided to go on ‘church hiatus’ until further notice. I think I need to get away from the interpersonal noise created by the church members and be quiet with my family and do some spiritual growing on our own right now.”
“I’ve met lots of other young people who have stopped going to church for exactly the same reason—we are all looking for authentic relationships yet so many church-going Christians refuse to be anything more than Sunday-morning friends.”
“They’re a bunch of hypocrites that go to church. I don’t want anything to do with them!”
“I’ve looked for a good church but I can’t find one.”
“I used to go to church but the last one I went to really hurt me. I don’t want anything to do with church!”
“My church is going out into the woods and communing with God. God’s creation is good enough for me.”
“I just don’t have the time. I have to work on Sundays.”
“I don’t believe God exists in buildings. I believe He’s in my heart.”
Why should I go to church?
Perhaps the first question to ask is what is church. Is it a building? Is it a gathering of individual believers? Is it a corporate structure? Is it a denominational hierarchy?
The word church in Greek, which is the original language of the New Testament, is the word ekklesia. It simply means a gathering together of people for some purpose. In the case of Christian believers, the purpose is to worship God, to be instructed, and for fellowship.
Hearing God speak to your heart is much easier when believers are assembled together in one heart and mind than when by yourself. We need to encourage one another so that discouragement does take over. Going to church is not just a once in awhile thing but a regular thing. What we do every once in a while does not really affect us. It’s what we do consistently that changes us.
If the sermon was poor or too long, and the worship stiff and religious, the promises of God still hold: you will receive the reward from God for obedience to gather together. It is conceit to think we are so spiritual or so intellectually developed that we can’t get anything out of the service. Church is a place where everyone is doing the same thing you are: worshiping God.
If you were to ask God if He wanted you to go to church, do you think He would say no? God did not say go to church only if the others act right. If others are hypocritical, that does not mean you have to be. Why not be an example of how not to be hypocritical? Why allow the behavior of others to dictate your relationship and obedience to God? If God says go to church, then go to church. If others are hypocritical then love them anyway.
Some people work on Sundays or Sunday is their only day off. Some of the activities that make our lives busy, however, are not from God. We took them on ourselves. God had nothing to do with telling us to get involved in them. You may not have the time to go to church, but are all those activities that take up your time things God told you to do? Probably not. If He has instructed us to go to church then He will most certainly provide a way for us to attend. It may take a supernatural intervention at your place of employment to make policy changes regarding church attendance. You might consider asking God to provide for you another job that allows you to attend church at a regular time.
See you in church!
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Deacon Peter Mueller of St. John’s Catholic Church in Grand Marais.
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