Four Reasons You Should
NOT Attend Church
By Pastor Josh Wamble
There are many reasons believers should prioritize regularly meeting together for worship. In Acts, we see that the earliest believers routinely gathered to worship together on the first day of the week. In Hebrews 10:25, the author tells us not to neglect meeting together as some believers have been doing. This principle of the importance of God’s people regularly gathering together for corporate worship is seen in the Old Testament as well. There are many good reasons that we should prioritize regularly gathering together for worship; we will consider some of them on this blog next week. Below, we want to consider at least four reasons why you should not gather for corporate worship.
- You Shouldn’t Attend Church to Be Accepted by God.
If you think regularly attending church is a way to make yourself more acceptable to God, there is a bigger conversation that we need to have. There is only one reason that God accepts us and is pleased with our worship, and that is on the basis of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.
- You Shouldn’t Attend Church to Impress People.
Even worse than regularly attending church as a way to make yourself more acceptable to God would be doing so to try and impress other people. When deciding whether or not to attend corporate worship, other people should be considered, and we will think about how to rightly consider them here next week. But, hopefully, you never make what other people will think of you the deciding factor of whether or not you will attend church.
- You Shouldn’t Attend Church Because It Makes You Feel Good.
Often attending church does make us feel good. We are encouraged to see one another. Hearing one another sing the truths of the gospel reminds us of what the Lord has done for us and lifts us up. Hearing the word preached and studying the Bible together can strengthen us as well. These are all good things. The Bible tells us to stir one another up and encourage one another as we meet together in worship.
However, depending on the passage of scripture that is being preached and your personally situation, leaving church feeling good might be a really bad response. Sometimes, it might be best to leave feeling convicted or sad or motivated or any number of other emotions, and all of these emotions are good and appropriate at certain times. You should not attend church services only to feel good.
- You Shouldn’t Attend Church for What You Can Get Out of It (Only).
The word “only” here is really important. You should definitely gain benefits from regularly attending corporate worship services and other activities at your church. As mentioned above, you should be regularly encouraged, challenged, equipped for ministry, taught the Bible, and confronted with God’s love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, justice, holiness, righteousness, and etc. You should get something out of regular church attendance. However, that should not be the only reason you regularly attend.
In stead of being solely focused on yourself and what you get, you should also be focused on other people (your brothers and sisters in Christ) and how you can be a blessing to them—how you might encourage them, how you might stir them up to good works, how you might help them to stay faithful, how you might hold them accountable, how you might show love and forgiveness to them, how you might help them to understand the Bible, and etc.
Next week we will consider several reasons why we SHOULD regularly attend church.