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What Does The Bible Say About Attending Church

Why I Dont Go To Church

What Does the Bible Say About Attending Church?

Consider these reasons discovered in a Google search for why I dont go to church:

  • Im 29, single and a Christian. Moment of vulnerability here: I dont like going to church. I used to like going and got SO much out of it, but now, not so much. My question is: Why should I keep attending?
  • Mainly, because Ive always found Church extremely boring. Sitting for an hour , half listening to a lecture while taking a glance at the clock every two minutes, is not something I like doing. Especially when it means I have to wake up early on a Sunday.
  • I make no secret of the fact that I am deeply troubled by the state of organized Christianity. Most of what we call church today are nothing more than well-planned performances with little actual connection between believers.
  • I was taken aback by our journey to find the right church. It was almost unbelievable how most churches did not preach the truth. Most people werent attending church in order to be edified. They just wanted to be pacified, and pastors were willing to feed their hunger for secular, inspirational messages cute stories clever presentations emotional appeals and, salesmanship. Also there was usually an appeal for money, because it seems that most churches have a perpetual cash flow problem.

Is It A Sin To Not Go To Church Every Sunday

Christian faith is expressed with three things: words, the heart, and the hands. Canon law requires Catholics to go to church on Sundays and other holy days of obligation and to abstain from work or other business that would inhibit their worship on those days.

Christ’s Body Is Made Of Many Parts Yet It Is Still One Unified Entity

1 Corinthians 12:12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:14-23Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.

1 Corinthians 12:27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

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There Are Many Reasons Not To Attend Church So Why Is Church Important What Does The Bible Say About The Purpose And Benefits Of Gods Churchand How To Find It

More than a quarter of Americans are religiously unaffiliatedatheist, agnostic or nothing in particular. Religion pollsters are calling them nones.

This group is growing rapidly, while among those who identify as Christian, church attendance keeps dropping.

These trends are not unique to the United States. In fact, most other Western nations experienced this decline in church attendance decades ago.

People are finding a lot of good reasons not to go to church.

What Is Gods Plan For The Church

What Does the Bible Say About Church Attendance?

Reaching the Lost with the Gospel. Matthew 16:18 says, And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Teaching, Rebuking, & Correcting with Biblical Truth. Matthew 18:17-20 tells us, If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

Working Together for the Glory of God. 1 Corinthians 12:21, 26 says, The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. …If one member suffers, all suffer together if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

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Does The Biblesay You Have To Go To Church

What does the Bible say about church? Does the Bible say you HAVE to go to church? To answer those questions we first we need to understand what the church is.

Most people today when they think of the church they think of the building in which people gather on Sundays. But thats a terrible simplistic view. Jesus vision for his church was much greater. It was about community that could not be shaken .

But the church isnt just about us. We have a mission to live out. Jesus final words to the disciples were a charge that still rings true for us today. He tells his followers to go into the world and tell others about what theyve seen with the promise that he will be right there beside them .

The church is a community that loves, supports, and challenges one an other. But its not just an exclusive club. The church is inclusive in that its always looking for people to share it with.

Much of the rest of the New Testament unpacks this idea of what church is and what the followers of Jesus should play. From those passages an incredibly beautiful picutre unfolds.

Check out just a few of these passages.

The emphasis in these passages is community, not church attendance. The goal of Christians is not to go to church on Sundays. Rather the goal is to live in community with each other.

So, does the Bible say you HAVE to go to church?

Lets break that down a little further.

We Should Attend Church Persistently And With Perseverance

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer

The early church as described in Acts was full of radical growth, outrageous miracles and genuine, joy-filled relationships. Doesnt this sound like the church we all want to attend? In this time when the church was thriving, Acts 2:42 uses an interesting word to describe the believers in the church. They were devoted. This word in the Greek means to persist, to persevere in and continue steadfast in.

Maybe you are in a season where church is hard. Its not the time or the busyness thats kept you from attending, its the emotions that rise up in you when you enter the building and rub shoulders with the people.

It may encourage you to know that Scripture says we should persist and persevere in our commitment to the church. And theres hardly any persistence needed in times of ease, so these verses must be talking about pressing in even when times are hard.

These verses also give us the four areas of church we should be devoted to. If youve stepped away from church or have never been fully committed, then these could be seen as four steps to devote or re-devote yourself to the house of God.

The church in Acts devoted themselves to:

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The Bible Also Says Yes

Despite frequently contravening religious rules, despite being critical of the Temple structure and its leaders, the fact remains that Jesus was frequently at the Temple. This is significant given the fact that Jesus is the only person on earth who could justifiably live his spiritual life alone. Jesus did not need a community of faith to mediate his relationship with the Father.

And yet, Jesus gathered a community around him. He lived his faith in the company of others. He attended worship at the Temple. An interesting question to ask might be why Jesus himself participated in the community of faith. Or, to put it another way, why did Jesus go to church?

While scripture does not command Christians to attend church, it does speak powerfully about the blessing of the church community. James exhorts anyone who is sick to call the elders of the church to pray over them, and to confess your sins to each other and pray for each other .

The Book of Hebrews calls Christians to consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing . The early Christians did not live their faith in isolation.

Those who joined the Christian movement were immediately immersed in a dynamic community of fellow believers. The early Christians were devoted to prayer, fellowship, teaching, and breaking bread . Meeting together was the natural way that Christian people grew in their faith.

As Members Of The Body Of Christ We Belong To Each Other

What Does The Bible Say About Going To Church?

Romans 12:5… so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

It is for our own good that God want us in fellowship with other believers. We need each other to grow up in the faith, to learn to serve, to love one another, to exercise our spiritual gifts, and to practice forgiveness. Although we are individuals, we still belong to one another.

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What Is The Church According To The Bible

People today have certain ideas about what the church is. These ideas have been shaped primarily by religion, history, tradition, and even society.

Some think the church is a special building or place Christians go to worship God on Sundays. Others think the church is an organization of people who agree with the teachings of Jesus. And others think its a group of people who carry out charitable works to benefit society.

But to really see what the church is, we need to go to the Word of God so we can grasp Gods thought concerning the church.

The subject of the church is a tremendous matter in the Bible with many aspects that cant be covered in a single post. Today well look at one initial aspect of what the church is according to Gods Word, with help from notes in the New Testament Recovery Version.

Need One More Reason To Go To Church

Jesus Christ, our living example, went to church as a regular practice. Luke 4:16 says, “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.”

It was Jesus’customhis regular practiceto go to church. The Message Bible puts it like this, “As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place.” If Jesus made it a priority to meet together with other believers, shouldn’t we, as his followers, do so also?

Are you frustrated and disillusioned with church? Perhaps the problem is not “church in general,” but rather the type of churches you have experienced so far.

Have you done an exhaustive search to find a good church? Perhaps you have never attended a healthy, balanced Christian church? They really do exist. Don’t give up. Continue to search for a Christ-centered, biblically-balanced church. As you search, remember, churches are imperfect. They are full of flawed people. However, we can’t let other people’s mistakes keep us from a genuine relationship with God and all of the blessings he has planned for us as we relate within his body.

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Reasons For Going To Church

As Christians, we should go to church because it was commanded both by the Lord Jesus and then by Paul, in the following Bible verses of Luke 22:19 and Hebrews 10:25:

Luke 22:19: And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me.

Hebrews 10:25: Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one anotherand all the more as you see the Day approaching.

The letters of Paul were written ca. 50-70 A.D, so his instructions concerned Christians from the very first century.

As we can see, there were people that were ceasing to attend church since as early as the first century, to the degree that Paul felt he should write that we must not do so.

As for Luke 22:19, how could we fulfill the commandment of the Lords Supper if we do not meet with other like-minded believers first? We definitely need to meet with other Christians to do so.

Can Christians Not Go To Church

What Does The Bible Say About Going To Church?

The answer to this question has to be both a common answer and an exception. First, the common answer is: No, Christians cannot forsake gathering together . Members should attend every Sunday possible to worship their sovereign and enjoy the assembly of the saints.

Of course, this assembly is not perfect. But this body of people is unlike any other gathering on the planet. It is made of people locked in space and time but on an eternal transition to a heavenly home. If you are of them, do not forsake them.

Before I move on to the expectation, I must add this: while I believe deeply in biblical church membership, there is a form of idolatry that, if we are not careful, can take root in our hearts when we join a church. The idolatry is this: we can believe we joined the church. We did not join the church of Jesus Christ. Christ joined us to His body through salvation. Truly, the first moment a redeemed saint of God spends in salvation is also the first moment they enjoy membership in His church. It was His choice to save you and join you to Himself, ratified by the high price of His own blood .

Therefore, if you did not choose in the first place to join the church of Jesus Christ, how can you, then, choose not to be joined to a local body of believers? Moreover, how can your redeemed heart let you not?

Nevertheless, this seems to be what is occurring, at least in the state of Kentucky and Mendocino, Calif., .

Until next week, God bless!

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Our Leaders In The Body Of Christ Offer Spiritual Protection

1 Peter 5:1-4To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder … Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseersnot because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be not greedy for money, but eager to serve not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

God has placed us into the body of Christ for our own protection and blessing. Just like it is with our earthly families, being relational is not always fun. We don’t always have warm and fuzzy feelings in the body. There are difficult and unlovely moments as we grow together as a family, but there are also blessings that we will never experience unless we become connected in the body of Christ.

The Meaning Of The Word Church

So what is the church? To answer this question, we first need to see the meaning of the word church in Matthew 16:18. Note 5 on church in this verse in the Recovery Version says:

Gk. ekklesia, meaning an out-calling. This word is used in reference to a called-out congregation.

This note tells us that in Greekthe original language of the New Testamentthe word for church, ekklesia, means out-calling. So the church is the congregation, or assembly, of all thepeople who have been called out of the world by God.

The second part of this same note says:

My church indicates that the church is of the Lord, not of any other person or thing it is not like the denominations, which are denominated according to some persons name or according to some matter.

When the Lord Jesus mentioned the church for the first time, He said Mychurch. As the note explains, this means the church is something thats of the Lord Himself, and not of anything or anyone else. Since the church is of the Lord, it isnt something formed by human organization.

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Why You Should Go To Church

Tim Arndt

People give a lot of reasons why they dont go to church

According to a Pew study the top 3 reasons are:

1) I practice my faith in other ways

2) Net dislike for congregation/religious services

3) I havent found a church/house of worship I like

One thing in common with these 3 reasons is that they all have to do with personal preference or feelings about the church.

While we might want to skip church, the real question is what does God want us to do?

This article is an all-out attack on the idea that we can be healthy Christians without the church.

Being a part of a church isnt just important, its essential.

Here are 28 reasons rooted in scripture on why we should faithfully go to church:

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