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For many, it can be easy to fall into the temptation of doing something other than going to church. Whether it's seizing some extra time to sleep because you were up late the night before, or maybe you, instead, take some time off to enjoy your favorite extra curricular activity. Maybe it's to catchup on some homework and studying, or it could even be because you're feeling a little sickly; All of these could be the factor that causes someone to spend his or her time doing other things besides going to church.
The Question at Hand
From time to time, I encounter a person that states something of this sort: "I'm a Christian, I know that. But why should I go to Church every week?" They may go on to say something like, "I can worship God in other ways." "I prefer to read my Bible at home and meet with God one-on-one, and I think it's of equal value."
To these people, I feel urged to ask them to seriously challenge their salvation (by means of examining it in Biblical context, God's written will).
Are you really a Christian?
+ To Worship God and Express our Love for Him
Going to church and building relationships with fellow Christians is a personal sacrifice. It's a sacrifice of time, it may be a sacrifice of material things also, such as money or gas, and it is a sacrifice that leads to other sacrifices in your life. There are so many other things you could be doing with your time, so why Church?
Meeting and worshiping with other believers is an active commitment to living your life devoted to Christ. When attending church in sincerity, the sacrifice of time alone is an active way to say - "Lord, I'm putting your will above my own. My time on this earth should be entirely dedicated to you, and this is one way I can serve you." There are also so many other ways that you can worship God in a church setting, which this reason also encompasses.
Spending time worshiping, praying, and learning with other believers should be something that we desire, fueled directly by our passion to have a life modeled after Christ and to let the Holy Spirit work through us.
By building on-going relationships with fellow believers, we find support and encouragement along with a setting for accountability and friendship. Having Christ-centered relationships with others enables us to gain true wisdom, to serve each other by using our spiritual gifts and talents, to bond together in ministry, and, overall, it empowers us all to become built up in Christ - A community of people seeking to honor and glorify God as the sole purpose of their lives.
+ For Teaching, Rebuke, and Wisdom
Elders and pastors work to give us an opportunity to hear the written word of God, to help us analyze it, and to provide interpretation and application to our lives. It is a time for edification and correction; for us to learn from those who have more scriptural knowledge and spiritual experience. It is also a time for the leaders of the church to provide that instruction and interpretation to the other members of the church. Much more can be said about how important this aspect of Church is.
+ To Play Our Part in the Body of Christ - The Church
Being a part of a church allows us to serve and be served. As I mentioned earlier, it gives us an opportunity to use our spiritual gifts and talents to directly glorify God. When we do not actively contribute in the Christian community, the entire church suffers from the loss (1 Corinthians 12:12-19). There is a vast abundance of ways that we can work to build the body up, serve, and testify to the power of Christ.
Being an active member in a church body is a direct way to exercise one's faith and, consequently, glorify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now of course, we can participate in all of these disciplines to varying degrees outside of a church building. The church is active at all times, and continues to exist beyond the boundaries of Sunday mornings. We should worship, and serve constantly, according to God's will as found in scripture, and also encourage, support, and rebuke (when/where appropriate) other Christians. However, being part of a local church can be extremely fruitful because it is, ideally, a collaboration of all of these disciplines and opportunities.
"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:20
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 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 10:23-25
Your Turn:
I've only named a few categories of what I see as reasons to be part of a local church, there are so many more details that can be expounded on.
What are some reasons that you see for going to church? (i.e.) Why do you go to church?
Your Turn:
I've only named a few categories of what I see as reasons to be part of a local church, there are so many more details that can be expounded on.
What are some reasons that you see for going to church? (i.e.) Why do you go to church?
I belong to a bible study group, as do many others. We meet faithfully once a week. There are 7 of us. Each week, we study and discuss scripture. It has been a really great way to help build faith and grow friendship. In many ways, I can say that this activity is more meaningful than church and Sunday school. Not that I think church and Sunday school are not important---I don't think that. It's just that there are more ways than just church to grow spiritually and contribute. Great post, as always.
Wow, I hate it when my browser seizes up and doesn't post the comment that I've just written.
I wrote a pretty lengthy response, but said in effect that even a group of 7 can be a "church." I think it all depends on how we define the term "church."
I personally think the most important aspects are worship and fellowship.
This is great!
Clint - Bible studies provide can amazing opportunities ways to find support, friendship, and serious spiritual growth. I've also found that other "Bible studies" can prove to hinder my spiritual growth, or to at least be more challenging to my faith; some have provided me with more evangelism and ministry opportunities than anything else. Thanks for mentioning that!
Greg - It's too bad that your internet browser keeps stealing such genuine comments! I'm sad it didn't work for you man, I would have loved to read your thoughts more in-depth.... What I do for bigger comments and when my connection is less-reliable than normal, is to quickly copy the text that I've written, so that if my browser does freeze up, I can just go back and past my text into the comment box.
Kevin - I'm really glad you think so! Awesome to hear that you've been reading some of the blog man! Hope it can come in handy to share with others as well.
-AJ
Yeah I've done that before... I just don't remember all of the time, unfortunately.
eh, I think god or anyone for that matter can realize that people always interpret things differently. So with that said, when his "word" was written, he should of known that different people will interpret his words differently. A church is run by people who might interpret these things how god meant for them to be interpreted, or perhaps they are not interpreting it the way he wanted.. Going to church every once in a while I think is a good way to see other people's interpretation, but I think the best thing you can do for yourself is not to let others think for you or to be swayed into interpreting "god's message" based on other peoples interpretations, but for you to interpret his message yourself.
I find that church a lot of times tells you how to interpret God's message, and I believe you should review the information by yourself first before other people starting influencing you.
Example:
If I told you that for a particular class in college that you don't really need the book or need to use it, before you have taken the class, you will start to lean a little bit more towards not getting the book, especially compared to if I never told you anything. If i never told you anything about the class, you might lean towards getting the book because you are unsure if you need it or not(better to be on the safe side).
People telling you one thing will always influence your decision and thoughts in some way, its basic social interaction. Now on the flip-side, if you never go to church or talk with others, you will be a little too "narrow minded" and perhaps not see someone else's good points. So there is value in perhaps talking with other Christians about their viewpoints, or going to church every once in a while, but I don't believe going regularly is good for your individual faith.
While I agree that the best interpretation is a Biblical one, we must also be able to say that an objective interpretation of the scriptures (God's message) exists.
Certainly we should not rely strictly on the interpretation of others to shape our views, that would be an entirely second-hand perspective. However, the interpretation that can be valuable to learn from is interpretation that is based on thorough investigation, through the use of resources, cross-references, and careful examination.
As Christians, we must be able to recognize valid interpretations through our knowledge of the scriptures, how the interpretation was gathered, and the credibility of the speaker giving such an interpretation (based on their lifestyle and devotions). We should always put interpretations against Biblical text to determine its reliability.
Certainly we should not believe what any individual tells us, even if they are in a position of power and/or leadership; but at the same time, there are people with far great knowledge and experience concerning the Bible and life on this Earth than we have, and we must realize that knowledge and insight can definitely be gained from other people. This is the truth with all education.
If one finds a Church where detailed and valid interpretations and concepts are given, than that Church is bound to be an extremely edifying and knowledgeable environment. Therefore, it would be extremely beneficial to ones faith and well-being to attend that Church on a regular basis.
On that same note, we should not receive our only spiritual "food" when we attend church. As you alluded to, all Christians should be actively reading and studying the Bible pretty much every day of their lives if they truly take their faith seriously.
It's not about being narrow-minded, and it's not about being open-minded. It's about being "right-minded".
There's an accurate interpretation to everything that holds objective meaning. It's our ability to gain what knowledge we can by the grace of God, and to leave the rest to faith.
What AJ said.
What AJ said.
from faithful reader
idk it bothers me, If god is all knowning and all powerful, wouldnt he have to have the ability to travel in time.. in order to truely know something, he would have to know the future implications as well.
So with this said, if god is all knowing and all powerful, he has the ability to travel in time. If this is the case, he knew a head of time that his words written down on paper would start many wars, he would also know about acts of murder, rape, incest, and even genocide. He would know all of this was going to happen from the start. Yet he still decideds to make his words vauge enough that people would interpret them differently which is a huge cause of these crimes, wars and other horrific things. So if god is all knowing, then excuse my language but he is kinda a jerk for expressing his "word" knowning full well the resulting actions.
and if god is not all knowing, do I really want to worship him? and if he is all knowing, he is kinda a jerk and do I really want to worship him?
This is something I've been struggling with for a while. I know he works in mysterious ways, and perhaps him knowing that his actions would make people do these horrific acts will eventually turn out to be a good thing, I just cant justify such an ugly path to something with a supposedly "good" outcome?
Totally understand - I used to struggle with these same things.
Firstly it helped me to understand that God is transcendent above time. We can deduce this from how God created earth and other Biblical accounts. God is not bound by time, and 'he' is always existing (Psalm 90:2).
On a second point. God did not create evil, nor does he need to stop it from happening if he is all-good and all-knowledgeable. God, in his being, is apart from evil. Evil stems as a production of human and angelic free will. God gave us free will in order so that we can glorify and honor him by making decisions that put his will before our own desires. The same is in the case with Satan, but we can get to that at another time.
Even though God knows of evil, he does not need to exterminate it. If God did exterminate it, it would means that humans always make "right" and "good" decisions. Therefore we would be merely robots, puppets you could say, with no choice at all.
So this is how we worship God. Through our free-will that gives us the ability to do evil, or good.
The great news is that he has provided us an escape from evil. We all need to seek to identify who Jesus Christ really is and what his life meant. From what I can see, Christ is God sacrificing himself in order that we can glorify him for eternity. God is the only being where praising himself is the most selfless act. Seems paradoxical, but it's profoundly correct...
Tell you what, we'll try and publish a couple of articles on those very subjects in the next few weeks. It's hard to cover these issues without going into more detail, so we'll try to cover them more thoroughly in the near future.
-AJ
I really enjoyed reading this. I think church is so unique in how you can connect with people, the community, worship, here scripture/message, be challenged, be shaped, be changed, and can learn how to evangelize (with new comers), and really grow all around. I love my church personally, and unless you truly get involved and connected, it can feel like just another thing to do with very little meaning. I think getting involved to get to know others, the church, and the body as a whole makes all the difference, and can set it apart from something like a bible study, which is strictly looking at the word and growing in community. There is so much more to church than that! Thanks for this.
Amanda,
Thanks for commenting! I'm very glad you enjoyed the article and I definitely agree with what you have to say.
It reminds me of many people I know in my life who do not have a Church, or rather, a church body to call their own. Instead, they claim to prefer that they like to "float" or "hop" between churches in order to more thoroughly experience Christianity. Oh my, how dangerous it is to be convinced of something like that! I feel convicted to write something on that topic as well.
It's so clear that God calls us to much more than that. Through scripture, God calls us to be an active part in the Body of Christ, and specifically, by being involved in a local body if we can. What you really highlighted is the 'being involved' part. Thank you for that!
AJ