Why go to church?

Have you ever wondered why people don’t go to church? I’ve heard lots of reasons given: It’s boring. I can’t understand what the pastor says. I’m too busy. There are too many hypocrites in church. I just don’t believe like you do. You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.

There are countless other explanations given for lack of church attendance, but most of these I just mentioned describe those who aren’t followers of Christ. Why don’t some Christians go to church?

I don’t have cold, hard data in front of me to back this up, but I believe that a quick glance at most church rolls would reveal that there are large numbers of professing Christians who simply don’t go to church on Sundays. Many have joined other churches and have not had their names removed, but what about the rest? Why aren’t they in church on Sunday?

Some of the reasons I think that we would hear are things like, I’ve been visiting other churches, We’ve been out of town a lot, My son/daughter plays sports on the weekends, etc… To be honest, none of those are really good excuses but there is one more reason that I think takes the cake: Your church just isn’t spiritual enough for me or it’s just not doing it for me anymore.

There are those who, for one reason or another, get fed up with the church in which they are attending. They don’t like the programs, they don’t think the preacher is that great, they don’t feel the Spirit anymore, etc. So, if that is the case, then we are sure to find these people sitting in some other pew on a given Sunday morning, right? Not necessarily.

Many of these Christians who lob these kinds of complaints simply don’t go to church at all anymore. I don’t know about you, but if something as important as my relationship with God was drying up at one place then I would be chomping at the bit to join elsewhere so that I could be fed and enjoy fulfilling worship and fellowship.

There is no such thing as a perfect church. It is impossible to please everybody. But if you are skipping out on weekly fellowship and Bible study and worship with the body of Christ because they just don’t do it for you anymore, then the church isn’t the one with the problem. You are. We can make excuses to each other all we want but what are we telling God when we refuse to serve Him in the local church that He created for us?