Do I have to go to church?

Do I have to go to church?

This is a question that all Christian parents hear. As children get into adolescence and more independence it is the question that challenges the parent's authority to explain why coming to and being part of God's house is important. Unfortunately some seem never to grow up and continue to ask that question, challenging other Christians to show to them or prove to them the necessity of "going to church."

This question comes from the basis of an puritan ethic that has infiltrated God's house since before the United States was even formed. When people began corruption of biblical text to support their own concepts and doctrines, a need to control the masses became necessary. "Discipline" was required and to have that you had to exude command over people, thus you create an "organization" over which you establish dominant leadership. A business where things become governed by committees, CEO's, managers, etc. A place where absolute authority exists in the hands of a few and to question that authority is to question God Himself and thereby forbidden.  Sound familiar?  It should, because the modern concept of what many consider "church" is just that - and totally abandons the concept of  God's house as the family which it is, with Christ as the leader of it. 

So, let's approach the question again - why should you go to church?  Understanding that God's house (church in religious speak) is a family and not a business or government, why should we? Paul addresses this in 1 Cor.12:27 and simply put,  “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a part of it.”  In a proper family, EVERY person in the family is needed for the family to function correctly. The same is true in God's house. We have the leader, the head of the family - Christ and you and I are all brothers and sisters within that family. We have different functions and abilities (Eph.4) but we all make up the family. No one is less important than the other, and when someone is sick, missing, or unable to be part of the family - it is a noticeable thing. In God's house, there is no insignificant family member. While as in any family there are some that are visible and some are behind the scenes, all are valuable.  The most important light other than Christ in God's house,  is not the large chandelier in our dining room but the little night-light that keeps you from stubbing my toe when you get up in the night. There is no correlation between size and significance. Every person matters because we are all dependent on each other to function. From the oldest brother or sister to the youngest child, all of us are part of the same family and equally important in that family!

What happens when one part of your own body fails to function? You get sick. The rest of your body suffers. Imagine if your liver decided to start living for itself, demanding to know why it should even be part of your body. Imagine if it just wanted a year off,  just to be fed. "I’ve got to do what’s best for me! Let some other part take over.”  What would happen? Your body would die. When we as "grown up" Christians are unwilling to serve and poutily sit on the sidelines as spectators demanding to know "why should I go to church?" the local family of Christ suffers. It is a failure to understand the most basic thing, that it is GOD who calls you to a service far beyond anything you could ever imagine. Through the death of His Son, He created you for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for you to do (Eph.2:10). Whenever you serve others in ANY WAY you are actually serving God.

It is God who has invited you to come into His house and eat at HIS table? Are you seriously going to ask why you need to go?

Jim