My Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Go to Church
When generous people made a California trip possible for our family several years ago, we did the Disneyland thing and the outlet mall shopping trip and the sand-n-sea excursion. We also visited a mega-church one Sunday morning. When it came to extra time and choices of activities that weekend, I suggested we visit one or two or three other church services in the area. Because HOW FUN!
But to the beach we went.
Mom.Is.Weird.
I just love the church so much. The church.
Last Sunday morning we went to a little town called Libby, Montana, where Matt has been filling in as preacher for a few weeks. It’s a small church in the sticks, you guys. But oh the people are sweet, and I have been enjoying worshiping the Lord with them as much as I enjoyed the lights, cameras, and action of the mega church we visited in California.
There’s something rich about gathering with other followers of Christ.
Over time, I’ve heard from some of you readers who tell me you haven’t been going to church for years, and in my heart this feels like you’re turning down Disneyland, outlet malls, and a sunny day on the beach all at once.
I told my friend last night that I was shipping this blog post to you, and she said, “What look will your readers see on your face when they’re reading about why you think they should go to church?” So I showed her, and it looked like a child’s best, “Mom, pleeeeeeease can we go to the park today?” look. So are you picturin’ it? Me here with this begging face on?
My Top 10 Reasons
Why You Should Go to Church
1. If you follow Christ, you are part of the body of Christ, and body parts, by nature, are super connected. I know a sweet young woman who is recovering from surgery on the stump of her leg right now, so I can picture what a troublesome thing it is to have an amputation. (1 Corinthians 12:27)
2. God wants to show others who he is through YOU. When you get involved at church, people get a bigger understanding of who God is. Crazy, huh?  (1 Corinthians 12:7)
3. You have been given a spiritual gift that is to be used to build up the body of Christ. Your gift is something other believers desperately need! (1 Corinthians 12)
4. You need to eat and learn and pray with other believers. (Acts 2:42-47)
5. You need to share with others, which means you have to hang out enough that you see the needs your brothers and sisters have. And they’re gonna wanna share with you. Â (Acts 2:45)
6.You need encouragement, and other believers need encouragement from you on a regular basis, because this life is seriously hard. (Hebrews 10:25)
7. You need to laugh and cry with other believers, through all the ups and downs of life. That can only happen if you’re meeting with other believers through a lot of days.  (Romans 12:15)
8. God is going to comfort you, often through the words and actions of other believers, and he wants you to pass on the comfort to the believers around you. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
9. If God is your Father, that makes church a family gathering. Â (Philippians 1:2)
10. When you gather with other believers and love them, God’s love is made complete in you. (1 John 4:12)
See, you need the church, and the church needs you.
It’s messy. You’ll get hurt by folks sometimes and will be disappointed by them often. But church is God’s design, and if you risk going to church you will bring glory to God and will find your own great joy.
Pleeeeeeeease will you go to church?
And for those of you who are regular church attenders, could you fill the comment section below with reasons why meeting regularly with your church family is so vital in your life? Maybe your words will be just the encouragement someone else needs to here!
Hebrews 10:23-25 (KJV) “23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Many times in our lives, God has called us to go to a church we didn’t “like”: “these aren’t ‘our people'”, “worship is boring”, “sermons don’t “speak to us”, “people don’t notice us or care about us” and many other issues. That were all real and true. But notice that ALL of our complaints are about us! I cannot find anywhere in the word where it says that worship is about me. It’s not. And I can find lots of places where God commands and demonstrates the importance of corporate worship. So we have learned to seek God as we’re seeking a new church (we’ve moved a number of times) and then to trust him as we attend a place that we may not like for various reasons. And lo and behold, with time (sometimes 10 years!) we figure out “why” He put us there. Sometimes because we needed something (to be humbled, to learn forgiveness, to be attentive, to desire to please Him, and a million more), sometimes because there is 1 person or a group of people that we needed to meet or needed to meet us. And that obedience has always been a blessing-eventually. We have had to work on our attitudes about going to church to “get”-good worship, a good sermon, good fellowship–and obediently go because the acknowledgment of what God has done in Christ at such great cost demands WORSHIP. Don’t keep going to an awful church. Ask God to show you where He wants you to join in a community of believers and trust him to answer. Relationships are hard and messy and costly- not a reason to avoid them but a reason to press in to God and see what he is revealing about us in them. And don’t be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin to excuse your refusal to do what God commands. He is good. He is faithful and He is loving. His people are sinful, saved by his mercy and grace.
Well said! I think my favorite word you’ve used here is “obedience”. God expects us to be connected with the body of Christ, and we simply need to be obedient, even though it undoubtedly will be costly, hard, and messy. And yes, yes, yes -we need to PRESS IN instead of avoiding what is difficult. A thousand times yes to that! Thanks for giving us your perspective!
We are at church we joke every time the doors open. I’m a single mom. My son and I love to be at church more than anywhere else. 4 days a week sometimes more. One thing I would add is the church keeps you accountable. Also the more you go the more you want to! Its a beautiful thing.
It is beautiful -and what a great place for a single mom and her son to get support and encouragement!
I did enjoy your blog but was a little put out by your reference to the church in Libby, Montana being “out in the sticks.” I guess it depends on where you live. There are a lot of churches in Montana that may not be right in a town but are located a few miles out in the country. I guess the phrase ” out in the sticks” just has a negative connotation.
No offense intended! Libby is a beautiful town that is really off the beaten path and surrounded by mountains and forest country. That was what I was picturing, and it certainly is a small country church in comparison to that immense, fancy, big city church in California. I’m a simple Wyoming girl who grew up going to a church even smaller than the one in Libby, so I guess I felt freedom to make the comparison. 🙂
I go to Church because I have been so blessed by God that I want to honnour him by being active in His house. The word ‘ I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord’ aptly describes my heart whenever it is time to fellowship with the brethren
I hope your joy in going to church is contagious to others! Thanks for leaving us this note.
I stopped going to church because no one cares or even notices when we are gone.
Dear friend, I am so sorry!!! Thank you for being honest. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who have had the same experience.
Now let me tell you a story. One day we came across one of our church members crying at a church event and found out she felt totally disconnected and like no one cared. Oh my goodness we felt awful. Her kids were super involved in church, so I think we all just kind of assumed she and her husband were too, but they were both kind of quiet people and hadn’t made any friends. Well, that woman is now one of my dearest friends, and they are right in the thick of things. So let me say to you that maybe the folks in your church just have no clue that you feel unnoticed. Please don’t give up on them!
Now let me add one more challenge to you. If you’ll read through the verses I’ve shared in this post, you’ll see that God intends for you to be closely connected to the body of Christ. Will you put your faith in his design of the church and just keep going? Instead of leaving, look for ways to serve others. You know, maybe there are some other people going to your church who don’t feel like they’re noticed. You could use your painful experience to help make you aware of other people who feel like you feel. Maybe God wants you to find others and make them feel cared for. I encourage you to lay down your disappointment and choose to love and serve others within the church. I am confident that if you do that you will find yourself connected and very much noticed within your body of Christ.
You are super valuable. God wants to show himself to others through you, so I hope you’ll jump back in to church. Let me know how it goes!
I go to church because I love to worship the Lord and doing it with others is so amazing. In addition, I get so much encouragement from hearing the the Bible preached. I want to be more like Jesus! Observing others love God is so inspiring! Encouraging someone else in their walk with Christ is a privilege.
And your beautiful voice and spirit leading us in worship helps lift my mind off all my anxieties and put my focus on Jesus. Thanks for serving our church family with your gift!
My family was hurt and betrayed recently by staff of a church that I have been a member of for more than 25 years. It has been difficult to go back to that church and be in fellowship even though we have close ties and friendships there. Our three teenage boys have opted recently to attend another church for youth. I took them last night and decided to stay there for prayer meeting. It was such a sweet reminder for me that the body of Christ extends well beyond the walls of your own home church. There was such a sweet fellowship there (warm, friendly, welcoming brothers and sisters in Christ) as I was able to sit in His church and be fed. Sometimes it’s refreshing to be reminded of the enormity of HIS church!
I’m so sorry you were hurt! Church can be messy, painful business at times -no doubt. I’m thankful the Lord provided you this warm group to rest your weary soul.
I go to church because I love to worship God with my singing. I go because I receive encouragement and direction for my life. I learn more about God and His goodness and holiness. I go to serve others with a smile as I serve as part of the greeting team. I go because Sundays feel incomplete when I have to miss church. I go, not out of obligation, but because of a desire to honor God and know Him better. I love the church!
Hurray! A wonderful testimony. I love that you talk about not going to church out of obligation. We have to have better reasons than just a sense of duty. Thanks for sharing!
Although I was raised in church and taught to be there “every time the doors were open”, sadly I lost this connection after I married. My husband and I always attended on Sun. mornings, but rarely on Sun. nights and never on Wed. evenings. This past Aug., 3 months ago, I began attending a small group Bible study at another local church-very small: 4-6 people total. Imagine my shock and amazement at how quickly this intimate group of believers have become like family to me! We eat together, we pray together, we study God’s Word and share life together and I find myself so excited for Wed. to roll around again! After years of spiritual drought, which was totally my fault, I find myself once again relating to the verse that says something like, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord!”
You have brought tears to my eyes with your story. I think you bring up an important point that just popping in and out of church once a week isn’t really enough for our souls. We need a closer connection with people, and eating together is a HUGE part of feeling like family. That’s when we talk about life and pray and get really close. Thanks for this story!
OMGosh Christy! I couldn’t agree more! I was absolutely the kid who looked at Mom & Dad and said, “PLEASE can we skip church today?” And I got shot down week after week and found myself in the pew. Fast forward many years to when my father died suddenly and I returned to church “because it will be hard for Mom to be there without Dad”. I was so comforted being surrounded by the people and the familiar traditions! While my world was spinning out of control, everything in church was the same…same hymns, same prayers, same Doxology. It became my sanctuary, in the truest form of the word. Mom has since gone to join Dad again, and I still attend church every week to “fill my tank”. I hope that I am now a part of that fabric of believers who are “the familiar” to someone else who is struggling to find their footing. It wouldn’t have been familiar, if my parents had not insisted on my attendance as I was growing up. It’s was to become one of their greatest gifts to me.
Wow, I did not expect that everybody’s stories would make me cry. I’m sorry that your precious parents are gone. I certainly know that grief. But what a beautiful gift they left with you, even if it took you forever to appreciate it! I hope parents are listening to you today. Thank you!!!