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Why should anybody attend church?
by Jeff Neuman-Lee
January 28, 2008
Why should I attend church? What’s the use? He was a young adult and he was serious. It was not the first time I had heard this question from a person his age, but for some reason my normal responses about how good it is for you and for others didn’t seem adequate. Before I might have said something like these things:
Going to church is a good thing, I suppose. Generally we find that societies with higher church attendance actually gain in the ways and thinking of Jesus and therefore they live by better morals than they would otherwise. And historically, I contend that this is true. But then it is not always a good thing. I think of the example of the evil torture and lynching in the south as recently as two or three generations back which were tolerated by local Christians, if not (disgustingly and hypocritically) celebrated by them. And all I can say to that is a rather lame sounding: “it could have been worse.” Which, given the potential evil in the heart of humanity, sure, it could have been. Why think of it: We could have said that Jesus inspired us to start a war with an innocent country and then we killed tens of thousands of innocent people, runined their infrastructure, sent more than four million into refugee status and then realized that it was all a mistake. . . er, bad example.
Attending church is a great way to find fellowship. But then that fellowship can become an exclusive club with doors only open to those who are patient enough or who are naturally attractive enough . . . er, let me try again.
Attending church can recharge your batteries to help you through the storms of everyday life. This is true. But then sometimes the preacher isn’t so good, or the music turned you off. Or it was a long way to go. Or there is that obnoxious [fill in the blank] who is always wanting to tell you how to live or how wrong you and/or your children are. Or somebody was too busy to say hello to you, maybe they stopped liking you. Or they didn’t think about you when they ordered the new coffee. Or they didn’t care when you obviously laid a hundred dollar bill in the offering. . .
Hmmmm . . . Let me see now. Attending church can be interesting, I suppose. You could think of it like a sociological experiment or an observation. You go in and watch the interesting people as they do their interesting liturgies and you note them down in your note book and go back and write up a paper for your class or a journal on sociological phenomena.
Well, I went through all these ideas in my head, and as you can see, I became pretty dissatisfied by each one. There is some truth to each one, but that truth is not necessary. Just because you attend church you will not necessarily be a better person, you will not necessarily find fellowship, your batteries may not get charged and who really cares about doing sociological studies?
So why should you attend church?
And my answer becomes something a bit unexpected. My answer is: “Don’t attend church, at least not too long.”
Yes, there is a reason to attend church and that reason is actually more like the last answer, the sociological answer. Yes! The sociological answer was correct, believe it or not. I think people should attend church to check it out. Attending church should be a preliminary move to see if one is supposed to be the church.
If you just attend a church you will always never be fully satisfied. Being the church is a whole different perspective on life and it is a whole different you. You are no longer a victim of the inevitably bad church, rather you are a worker to patiently, lovingly build and rebuild Jesus’ Kingdom. When things fall apart, attenders run to the next church down the street. People who are the church have no where to run, except to the Spirit of Jesus alive in this world and to allow Him to do the work of love to build things up.
Why attend the church? Just to check it out. Perhaps then God will call you and you will become the church of Jesus Christ.
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