I'm not just talking about non-believers. I'm talking about people who are, or at least claim to be, Christians. The reasons are as varied as the individuals who give them. I don't need to go to a church to know God. I don't get anything out of church. I've heard it all before.
Some have been burnt. Some have been bored. Many have been convicted. None of those are comfortable. And none of them are valid reasons. They're excuses. Plain and simple.
I agree that you don't need a church to know God, or talk to God, or be close to God. God is everywhere. He's no more present in a church than in your house, your car, or your workplace. I also agree that if "church" to you means going somewhere on Sunday morning, and nothing else, then no, you probably aren't going to get much out of it. For those who think they've heard it all before--why do we sing the Star Spangled Banner? Haven't we heard it before?
As for God being everywhere, that's true. You can talk to God, be with God, wherever you are. But are you? If you think "church" is a one day a week affair, then that's all it is. It's an affair. It's not a commitment. It's not a relationship. It's not really church.
Church is not only about a Sunday, or Saturday, or any other day of the week trip to some nice building where you dress up and act like someone you're not. That's not the church of the Bible.
According to Acts 2:46, the early Church (believers) met together every day in the Temple courts. Then they went and ate together in their homes. The believers in Acts shared what they had with each other. They devoted themselves to teaching and learning, encouraging and uplifting. They held each other accountable. They laughed together, cried together. They did life together.
That's the church we need. The church building is where people get together to worship and praise God. The Church is the people themselves. And as much as you might not want to admit it, you need people.
Church isn't just about what you get out of it.
This is the other side of the coin. It's a selfish person who doesn't go to church because they "don't get anything out of it." If you are a Christian, you are part of a much larger body, a group of people we call the Church. If you take yourself away from that, you're taking away what God has planned for you to do in His body. If you don't think you have a place, or a job, or a reason to be in church you're wrong; you do. The Bible says we are all members of one body, and we are to do what God has called us to do within that body (Romans 12:3-8). Don't think more of yourself than you should. This isn't about you. Do what you're called to do.
What would happen if you walked away from your duties as a father or husband, mother or wife? What if you just stopped being a friend to someone who needs your support? What if you simply turned your back on your business, your farm, your household--what would happen? Do you care? Does it matter that your selfishness would hurt other people? Of course you care. Of course it matters. Honorable people don't ditch their responsibilities, and I think you are an honorable person.
You just may not realize that you have, as a Christian, a responsibility to all other Christians, but you do. We are all part of the same body. We all have different abilities, and it takes all of us to make this thing work the way it's intended. If you're not carrying your weight, either someone else is having to try to pick up the slack (ineffectively, because we are not you), or something simply isn't being done. Are you OK with that? Are you OK knowing you're hurting the body you belong to? I hope not.
Maybe you're afraid the roof will collapse if you show up.
I've heard that one, too. Always as a joke, but also always with a nervous laugh, a self-conscious cough, a down-turning of the head. Some people really think if they show up, God's going to strike them down.
It doesn't work that way. If God wanted to stick a lightning bolt in you, He'd do it wherever you are. A healthy church isn't a resort for the righteous, it's a hospital for the hurting. If you find one of the former, get out! That's not a church. That's a bunch of hypocritical, Pharisaical (like the Pharisees) posers. A real church realizes we're all a bunch of sinners, none of us better than any other. A real church accepts people where they are, and helps them walk closer to Christ.
If you're avoiding church because of a guilty conscience, that's God trying to get you in church, and Satan trying to keep you out! Who do you want to listen to?
I don't know what you've done, but God does. If you're a Christian, Christ has died for those sins. You are to repent (turn away from sin), and start living life right, but you don't have to carry that guilt. Give it up. You can't change the past, but Christ can take it away from you. If you're not a Christian, and you're carrying that guilt, there's only one way to get rid of it. You've sinned against God. Only God can forgive you, and He only forgives through faith in His Son. Believe in Jesus as having died for your sins, and risen again so that you too can rise from the death of your sins, and you are guilty no more.
People who have been through that can help you get through it as well.
We need each other.
Unless you're of a type who sequesters himself away like the Unabomber, you need other people. What's the worst type of imprisonment? Solitary confinement. Why? Because we need fellowship. Why do we go out to eat with others when we have food at home? Why get together with friends and neighbors? Why live in communities? Because God made us in such a way that we need each other, whether we want to admit that or not.
You will hang out with other people. You will be like them, and you will do what they do. If those people are fellow Christians, you will, more often than not, act like a Christian. If those people are not Christians, you probably won't. That doesn't mean we should never associate with someone who isn't a believer--we are to go and make disciples of those who are not. But, as Paul says in I Corinthians 15:33, Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
Just as a battery gets drained if it's never recharged, so does a Christian. We get recharged in fellowship with God and other believers. That's where we get built up, energized, refreshed. You can't live without eating, and we don't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). I'm betting, speaking from experience, that if you're not hanging out with other Christians, you're not eating from the Word of God either.
Do you need a church?
Yes. You need a group of people around you who are walking with Christ, studying His word, worshiping and praising Him. You need someone beside you to hold you accountable, and you need to be doing the same for your brothers and sisters. You need to pull your weight as part of the body to which you belong, and you need the other members of that body to help you accomplish what God has called you to do.
You need to be in the company of Christians. You need to be recharged, and to recharge others. You need us, and we need you. There is a ton of work to be done, and none of us can do it on our own.
Stop making excuses. Stop being selfish. Stop being proud.
Get involved in a church body. I think you'll be surprised by what you've been missing.
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