Why Do I Have To Go To Church?

It's funny, because I always seem to write something like this whenever we happen to miss church as a family for some reason. We battled the weather and made it there this morning, but last week we missed out.

We've all seen the church signs that read: "What's Missing In CH_ _ CH?" We've all heard the saying: "The Church Is A Hospital For Sinners, Not A Country Club For Saints!" Finally, we also know that mere church attendance doesn't make one a Christian anymore than sitting in your garage all day doesn't make you a car (and if you don't believe me, then just do a quick Bible study on all the places where the "sheep" are mentioned with the "goats" or the "wheat" with the "tares" too).

With all of that in mind, I thought this was a really good piece on the fleshly, sinful struggles we ALL face when it comes to going to church each week as well as the wonderful gifts God delivers to us there whether we feel it or not.

"If you ask people why they come to church, they might say, 'It makes me feel good.' There’s nothing quite like gathering together around Word & Sacrament with God’s people. Church often makes us feel good, and when it does, thanks be to God! 

But there’s any number of reasons why you might not feel good when you come to church. 

Maybe the kids were acting up the whole service. 

Maybe you recently got some bad news. 

Maybe you’re mourning the loss of a loved one. 

Maybe you’re depressed or in poor health. 

Maybe money’s tight or life at home isn’t what it should be. 

Or maybe it’s just because the sinful flesh cares nothing for God’s Word. The last thing the sinful flesh wants to hear about is sin, and it does everything it can to avoid being put to death through daily contrition and repentance. 

Church may often make us feel good, but this isn’t why we come. We come to church, above all, to have our sins forgiven. This happens—thanks be to God— whether you feel it or not. Jesus speaks, and it happens. Even if you don’t leave here feeling great, your sin is forgiven you just the same. And you need that. 

The Absolution won’t cure your illnesses, add money to your bank account, or magically take all of your problems away. It won’t cause your kids to sit still through the whole service. It won’t make contrition fun or repentance easy, or even prevent you from neglecting God’s Word in the future. But it meets your deepest need, and when you feel least like hearing it, that’s probably when you need it the most. If you only came to church when you felt like it, you probably wouldn’t come very much at all. 

The Gospel does its work even when we don’t feel it, and even though we don’t see it."

My apologies, because I forget where that came from, but I did have it saved in my personal files and thought it fit so well with today's entry here.

Why do I have to go to church? In a Lutheran layman's terms, because I need forgiveness and need to have my sins forgiven. So do you. Plain and simple.



NOTE: Please understand that I'm not a called and ordained minister of God's Word and Sacraments. I'm a layman or just your average everyday Christian, Corporate Healthcare Recruiter, Husband, Father, Friend who lives in the "City of Good Neighbors" here on the East Coast. As another Christian Blogger once wrote, "Please do not see this blog as me attempting to 'publicly teach' the faith, but view it as 'an informal Public Journal of sorts' about my own experiences and journey." So if any of my notes here help you in any way at all, then I say, "Praise the Lord! Thanks be to God!" but please do double check them against the Word of God and with your own Pastor. Trust, but always verify. To be more specific, and relevant to the point I want to make with this lengthy disclaimer/note, please understand that I'm a relatively new convert to "Confessional Lutheranism" and one who recently escaped an American-Evangelical-Non-Denominational mindset a little more than 6 years ago now despite being a Christian my whole life. That being said, please contact me ASAP if you believe that any of my "old beliefs" seem to have crept their way back into any of the material you see published here, and especially if any of the content is inconsistent with the Bible, our Confessions, and Lutheran doctrine in general (in other words, if it's not consistent with God's Word, which our Confessions merely summarize and repeatedly point us back to over and over again) so that I can not only correct those errors immediately and not lead any of His little ones astray (James 3:1), but so that I can also repent of my sin and learn the whole truth myself. With that in mind, please be aware that you might also discover that some of the earlier/older pieces I wrote for this blog back in 2013 definitely fall into that "Old Evangelical Adam" category (and they don't have a disclaimer like this) since I was a "Lutheran-In-Name-Only" at the time and was completely oblivious to the fact that a Christian "Book of Concord" even existed (Small/Large Catechism? What's that!?!). This knowledge of the Lutheran B-A-S-I-C-S was completely foreign to me even though I was baptized, confirmed, and married in an LCMS church! So, there are some entries that are a little more "out there" so-to-speak since the subject matter was also heavily influenced by those old beliefs of mine. I know that now and I'm still learning. Anyway, I decided to leave those published posts up on this website and in cyberspace only because they are not blasphemous/heretical demanding I correct them or take them down entirely, but because I now have this disclaimer, and only to demonstrate the continuing work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in my life (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 1:6). Most importantly, please know that any time I engage in commenting on and/or interpreting a specific portion of the holy Scriptures, it will always closely follow the verse-by-verse footnotes from my Lutheran Study Bible and/or include references to the Book of Concord unless otherwise noted. Typically, I will defer to what other Lutheran Pastors both past and present have already preached and taught about such passages since they are the called and ordained under-shepherds of our souls here on earth. Finally, I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the length of most entries (this disclaimer/note is a perfect example of what I mean by that! haha). I'm well aware that blogs should be short, sweet, and to the point, but I've never been one to follow the rules when it comes to writing. Besides, this website is more like a "Christian Dude's Diary" in the sense that everything I write about and share publicly isn't always what's "popular" or "#Trending" at the time, but is instead all the things that I'm studying myself at the moment. For better or for worse, these posts tend to be much longer than most blog entries you'll find elsewhere only because I try to pack as much info as possible into a single piece so that I can refer to it again and again over time if I need to (and so that it can be a valuable resource for others -- if possible, a "One-Stop-Shop" of sorts). Thank you for stopping by and thank you in advance for your time, help, and understanding. Feel free to comment/email me at any time. Grace and peace to you and yours!