Why Go to Church?

 

    There are many reasons why people go to church.  However, God only cares about your heart reason.  Church is where people need to feel safe to go heal.  It needs to be a focal point of community.  It is where people come together to live life and worship God together.  

    Church is more than a building.  It is the people that come together in that building to learn, disciple, worship, and have fellowship with God and other believers.  It is vitally important for Christians to connect with other Christians for growth, development, intimate friendships, and to be in obedience to God.

    The reason why some people may shy away from church is that they don't want to be categorized.  Labels have their place, but it can also make it harder to find connections with people that don't fit into your category.  

    One category that is important is member, visitor, and non-believer.  Members are the church body. They are the workers and community.  Visitors are the people (mostly Christians) that show up and decide if they want to be a part of this community.  They are prospect workers, but also relationships.  The non-believers are the people that you have to go fishing for.  They are the ones that the church are commanded by God to go bring into the church.

    Another category is the givers and non-givers.  Givers give their tithe.  Tithing is the financial obligation that you have to give back a portion of what you have financially back to God.  You can never out give God.  He will always give you more than you can give back, so it should be something that no Christian questions doing.  The only question is how much and your reason for that amount.  However givers are also the people that you may never see working, but work behind the scenes to make the church building the beautiful and welcoming place it is.  There are many ways to be a giver.

    There are groups in the church too: disability, teachers, children, deacons, security, singles, seniors, youth, and more.  There are rules on how to treat each group and what each group is responsible for.  Rules are good for order, but it is more important to be open for change.  

    Have an open heart that prays over the church, so that you are willing to change things up as the Holy Spirit guides.  If you do not, then you will hurt people along the way and they may push church out of their lives.  That is something they will have to answer to God one day, but you will have to answer to God too if you are pushing people away from Him.

    Jesus has the power to heal anything: wounds, illness, hearts, and souls.  He is the hope for the hopeless.  There are Sabbath Laws that should be upheld, but not at the cost of souls.  Laws that are oppressive will stop worship.  God's laws are good because they reveal how much we really need him.  Man's laws just make things oppressive.  Oppression crushes worship.  Church was never meant to be oppressive.

    When people feel hopeless it cripples their spiritual growth.  It silences their worth and value that they have as being created by God.  The oppressed, spiritually crushed, and physiologically suffering loss connections to society, income, self-worth, and hope.  They get an skewed view of what church should be, life values, and who God is.  When morals and thought patterns are tainted by sin, consuming pain, or misdirection it leaves to hopelessness.  

    Jesus is the only way to change that.  Church is the best place to learn his way of doing things.  He is the only savior that can really change things in your life now and give you hope for eternity.  He loves you enough to take care of your needs.  Will you let him?

Matthew 18:15-20, Luke 6:6-11, Hebrews 10:19-25, & 1 John 1:5-10