Why Go To Church?

An article by Matt    No Comments

I have a love hate relationship with Facebook.  I have shared about some of my concerns about the social media giant in the past, but I do believe that the ability to hear from differing perspectives on different subjects is of great value… if you can find them (more on that tomorrow).  Yesterday morning, before heading off to church, I was scanning through Facebook and saw someone post the question “why do you think people don’t go to church?”  Now, I normally try to avoid these types of things because I generally end up offending someone, but yesterday morning I just couldn’t help myself.  There were the typical responses about not wanting to wake up early, or because of all the hypocrites in the church.

One commenter gave a brief glimpse into their soul, sharing that they stopped attending church because they grew weary of seeing people act in an un-Christlike manner.  I totally understand this.  In fact, my response of ”because we can not answer the question “why should I go to church” sufficiently” was in part aimed at this issue within the church.  What happened after this person’s comment was as lamentable as it was predictable.  Another commenter took them to task challenging them that God commands us to go to church and that rather than leaving the church they should “be part of the solution”.

Now, I generally do not recount Facebook debates with all my friends… and most times I don’t even bother getting involved.  My typical Facebook usage involves me checking up on what my friends are up to, seeing what kind of adventures my nephew is involved with that week, and posting pictures of my garden and what I am grilling that night (you should friend me just for that).  But this discussion hit me in a place that I am passionate about… and an area that I believe the church is missing the point.

Throughout the years Christendom has placed a high value on the Sunday morning church worship service.  I would suggest that at times this value borders on idolatry, but that is a discussion for another time.  The value on the Sunday morning service has become, most cases, an unquestioned part of what it means to be a “good Christian” and so people go, if for no other reason than “that is what we do.”

The going through the motions, “this is what we do”, thinking that goes on in many families across the nation on Sunday mornings is heartbreaking to me… and confounds those who are outside of the Christian tradition.  When you go to church because you are supposed to, because you are commanded to, how can you expect another to embrace the idea of waking up early on a Sunday morning to go sing a few songs and hear a lecture?

Perhaps we need to rethink the purpose of Sunday morning church worship.  Instead of it being a requirement of membership, or a part of the list of things that are expected of “good Christians”, we should be reframing  Sunday morning as a place where we celebrate the goodness of our God, respond to the love that he has shown us, and testify to the changes that he has made in our lives.  Remove the expectation of attendance and begin to build a culture of worship that is so irresistible that people can not help but come and celebrate the greatness of our Creator and experience the life change that only he can provide… perhaps then much of the pettiness and man-centered garbage that gets in the way of those outside of the faith will begin to disappear.

Why do YOU go to church?