SHOULD WE GO TO CHURCH?

From an article in Christianity Today, we see an alarming trend noted by Christian researcher George Barna, namely, people are stopping the practice of going to church:

"Storm the barricades! According to researcher George Barna, we're in the midst of a "spiritual revolution that is reshaping Christianity, personal faith, corporate religious experience, and the moral contours of the nation."

"But before we break out the party poppers, we should note that, like every revolution, this one has a loser: the local church.

"Unlike the Great Awakenings, which brought people into the church, this new movement "entails drawing people away from reliance upon a local church into a deeper connection with and reliance upon God [Emphasis mine]." Already "millions of believers have stopped going to church," so Barna expects that in 20 years "only about one-third of the population will rely upon a local congregation as the primary or exclusive means for experiencing and expressing their faith." Down will go the number of churches, donations to churches, and the cultural influence of churches."

So, should we go to church? Should we be concerned with the fact that fewer people are coming to church than ever before?

Luke 4:16 (NIV): "He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read."

This passage in Luke relates the start of Jesus' public ministry. After His baptism in the Jordan River and His 40-days of temptation in the desert, Jesus went back to Nazareth to begin His ministry. This verse tells us that Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath Day and read the Word of God there during the worship service.

This is an important thought. Even Jesus -- even God Himself -- went to church and spent time reading the Scriptures. This verse says that going to synagogue was a custom of Jesus. It was something that He did on a regular basis. As a religious Jew, He probably went to synagogue every Sabbath Day to worship God and to hear God's Word and to pray with God's people

We have a lot of people in our communities today who are unchurched. I see them every morning when I'm driving to and from church. I know a lot of them are probably not saved, and their presence is an indictment against the church today for not reaching out to them in a more proactive manner. However, I know that a lot of them are probably Christians who, for whatever reason, just don't feel a need to be a member in a church.

Howver, the message of the Bible is clear. We are commanded to follow the example of Christ and He went to church on a regular basis. Hebrews 10:26 (NIV) says, "Let 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."

Church is the place where we receive instruction and encouragement and revival. All of us need to be in church on a regular basis just like we need to be doing the other spiritual disciplines on a regular basis: praying, reading the bible, participating in the sacraments

I've had some tell me that they don't go to church because there are too many hypocrites in our churches today. Or they say they don't go to church because there's too many fights in church or too many divisions. "There's problems in the church," they say.

But this has always been the case in churches and synagogues. You don't think there wasn't problems in the synagogue that Jesus visited on that day in this passage? These people had gotten so caught up in doing church that they had forgotten why they were there. They had so many laws and rules that it was hard to find God at that church. But still Jesus went, because He knew that God was still there and still working, even in the midst of man's best efforts to mess it up. God still used churches and church people to spread His message and to proclaim His word in the world.

Can you find God outside of church? Of course. But, the example of Christ says to go to church and seek God's face, and God will still speak to your heart in spite of the hypocrites and the fightings and the division. Let us never forget that the church is the body of Christ, and God still uses the church to touch hearts and lives today.