I’m a Christian…But Do I Really Need to Go To Church?

I have heard this question various times over the last few years from a few of my friends who seem fed up as it were with the Church and how it operates. Sometimes they get fed up with me for standing up for the relivence of the Church today in 2010.

Here is my answer to that question posed in the title.
Yes of course you should go to Church if you are a follower of Jesus Christ! 🙂

It is not only biblically sound to keep up the practice…It is also quite helpful to the believer and his fellow believers if he continues to go to Church.

Hebrews 10:25 (New International Version)

25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

You may not know it, but you have influence over your fellow believer friends. If you stop going to Church then they will be more likely to also ditch Church. Also, other people in your Church fellowship realize the positive impact you have on your Church, even if you don’t, thus your actions could cause unplesant discord throughout the Church body.

COMMON EXCUSES I’VE HEARD FOR AVOIDING CHURCH FELLOWSHIP:

If Christianity is all about having a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ. Why bother getting up in the morning just to hang out with his people? Can’t I just go it alone? ISN’T READING MY BIBLE ENOUGH?

You could try to go at it alone, but you would not be able to get as much out of your relationship with Christ if you completely avoided his people. The advantages of congregating with fellow believers are that you can actually strenghen your relationship with Christ by hanging out with his people. You can be encouraged by others as they tell you what God has done in their lives over the last week, and you can bring encouragement to them in the same way.

If you are having trouble with a certain theological concept, you will have much more of a chance of having your tough question answered if you go to Church. There you can pose your question to the pastor people who are more experienced with said issue than yourself and get your question answered much faster than you would if you were to just research it on your own.

While reading your Bible is an extremely important (I highly recommend that) it is also good to come together in corporate worship as the worship time and sermon can also help you understand more about aspects of life, your current situation, and what God has done and can do for you. The goal of corporate worship is to reiterate Biblical teaching in a variety of forms so that people who may not have understood a message one way, might understand it in another.

Why bother with Church if bad things still happen to me?

It is understandable that people will generally go through hard times in life on occasion. Jesus was crucified on a cross with real nails that caused him real pain! That was definately not on his top 10 list of things he did during his lifetime.

However, when calamity strikes, that is no reason to completely bail on one’s Church congregation. God brings his people together so that they may rejoice together in the good times and help eachother out in the bad times. If you have a need in your life, something that is stressing you, it is much easier to bear the burden along other people than it would be to bear it completely by yourself.

I have no voice in my Church and I feel God calling me to initiate change to a particular issue?

Believe it or not you do have a voice in the goings on of your Church. If you would like to start up a new sort of ministry or ask questions about why things are done a certain way in your Church, most Churches have various meetings throughout the year, and if you are a member, you can bring up issues important to you. Also, pastors are generally cool with people asking them questions about many topics whenever…that’s part of the reason they are serving in the role that they are in. You can also get your voice in on issues by chatting with your pastor for a couple minutes after the service.

CONCLUSION

Whatever your views on Church are, just remember, Jesus loves you and won’t ever give up on you.

 

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