Why Do We Go to Church?

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25).

"What then, brothers (and sisters)? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up" (1 Corinthians 14:26).

This morning my son asked me, "Why do we go to church?"

We study the Bible together at home; we pray at home; and we sing at home. My son also knows that the vast majority of my personal "ministry" takes place in my everyday life---at home with my family and on my job as a mail carrier. He knows that my coworkers and customers often come to me with questions about the Christian faith and with prayer requests. In fact, only a small part of our lives is spent at the church building or engaged in official church-related projects. He wonders why we meet with the church at all, since it takes up such a small percentage of our time during the week.

I told him that we meet as a church primarily for encouragement. We need encouragement to keep following Christ, and our fellow Christians need encouragement from us to keep following Christ. It's true that most of our lives are not spent in church meetings, but those meetings serve a good purpose. It can be discouraging to think that we are alone in our spiritual lives; but being in the physical presence of other committed followers of Jesus as we worship, serve, and share our lives together can give us a shot of courage that could be essential in keeping us going and being productive.

I'm sure that there are many other good reasons to go to church, but that's the answer that immediately came to my mind.

How to Find a Good Church

Lately, people have been asking my advice on finding a good church. It certainly can be hard to determine which church one should attend.

Generally, churches look alike in their yellow pages ads, on their web sites, and in their mass mailings. Their radio and television commercials seem very similar. I might visit a church based on advertising alone. However, if a church did not live up to its projected image, I would not return.

Recently, I have been thinking about another method of finding a church. What if I started looking at the people around me to find the most Christ-like men and women? What if I decided to visit congregations that they attended? I have little doubt that I could find an excellent church using such a method.

I would look for men and women of kindness, the type of people who will reach out in compassion to others around them who are hurting or lonely. I would look for people of conviction, people who would stand for biblical standards and doctrines despite the unpopularity of their positions. I would look for men and women who would not only refuse to participate in office gossip, but who would not allow it to go unchallenged in their presence. I would look for people of wisdom, people who know how to live godly and attractive lives at the same time. I would look for men and women who enjoyed life and had grateful attitudes. I would search for people who spoke of faith in Christ and lived by faith in him. I would seek out men and women of humility, people with a sense of security without a sense of arrogance.

Such people reflect well on Christ, but they also reflect well on their local congregations. They are the best advertisements that a church could place in a community. Their lives would help me in determining which church to visit (and possibly join).

"...they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive in every way" (Titus 2:10, New Living Translation).

Why We Love the Church (Part Two)

One more quote from Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck's Why We Love the Church:

"With all the ugly sausage making I've seen in the church, I've also witnessed incredible sacrifice and generosity. I've marveled a number of times at why all these people voluntarily show up for worship on Sunday, give their time and money, and commit to loving those who are or once were complete strangers. I've overheard plenty of newcomers being invited over for dinner. I've been moved to tears as people tell me they are praying for me, and because I know their character I believe them. I've seen hurting people surrounded by a loving church family in prayer. I've seen the church respond with lavish outpouring to those who are in need. I've seen lots of people quietly do their work in the community and in the church, with little fanfare, little applause, and little talk of changing the world, and all the while make a huge difference. I've seen young kids and empty nesters give their lives to help the helpless in Mississippi, or work alongside the poor in Africa, or bring the gospel to college students in Turkey" (pp.221-222).

I have seen similar things in every church with which I have been involved. Many Christians and churches are quietly making a difference in their communities and around the world. They are following the apostle Paul's instructions: "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody" (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). It may not be spectacular, but it's a great reason to love the church.

Why We Love the Church

Earlier this week Kevin DeYoung sent me a copy of the new book he co-authored with Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church. (No, Kevin is not a close personal friend; although I think we could be, since we think so much alike on so many levels. Actually, I won a copy of his book by responding to one of his blog posts at http://www.revkevindeyoung.com/.) Kevin serves as a minister of the University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan. Ted is a successful sportswriter and member of the same congregation.


This is a book written for everyone who thinks the church is lame and wants to leave (or has left already). It's also good for everyone who has been affected by the spirit of our age which disregards the importance of the organized church in the lives of Christians today. It has an important message for all of us who are tempted to mock, criticize, or whine about the church.

However, Why We Love the Church is not a breezy book designed to make believers feel good about complacency. It acknowledges the failures of the church as a whole and Christians in general. We are not perfect, and the authors treat criticisms of the church with respect.

But the authors do not treat the criticisms as if they were the entire picture. In fact, much of the book deals with answering unfair and misguided criticism (especially found in popular Christian books today), while challenging Christians to embrace a more mature and nuanced understanding of the organized church and their place within it.

Here are a few of my favorite thought-provoking quotes:

"Community engagement is good. It's all too easy to criticize the missional crowd without actually doing anything yourself. And yet, a critique is warranted. The vision behind words like 'missional' and 'kingdom' often ends up reducing the church to a doer of good, noncontroversial deeds (e.g., no mention of pro-life concerns as important to community transformation) like every other humanitarian organization. When young people talk about the church getting involved in social justice, they almost always have in mind sex trafficking, oppression and death in Darfur, AIDS, or some other social cause. The danger for conservative evangelicals is to dismiss these concerns as liberal issues that don't concern us. I really don't want that to happen...This is a sinful response.

"But there are dangers for the social justice crowd too. Most of their causes demand nothing of us Christians except psychological guilt and advocacy. This often means that middle-class kids feel bad about being middle class and complain that other people (the church, the White House, multinational corporations, those fat cats on Wall Street, etc.) aren't doing more to address these problems. The problems are almost always far away and the solutions involve other people caring more.

"There's also the danger that we only champion issues that win us cool points. Let's be honest, no one we run into is for genocide or for sex trafficking or for malnutrition. It takes no courage to speak out against these things. We can be thankful that in these areas the world's values (in our world at least) overlap with Christian virtues. But where is the outrage from missional folks about abortion, casinos, the threats to religious free speech, and other evils that plague our world? We all have different callings. Some may be drawn to pro-life issues and others to addressing global hunger, but let's make sure as Christians that our missional concerns go farther than those shared by Brangelina and the United Way" (pp. 44-45).

Those words were incredibly accurate and penetrating. Having been a pro-life advocate and an advocate against poverty and human trafficking, I can testify that it is much easier to oppose poverty and sex slavery than abortion. At worst, you will be ignored in America for calling for compassionate action on behalf of the poor and enslaved. At best, you will be slandered for speaking up on behalf of the pre-born children who are in danger of being killed. And of course, it is much easier to call on the government to do something than to actually be personally involved.
"(T)he church has often been despised. It would be wrong to wear unpopularity as a sure marker of faithfulness. But by the same token, we should not assume we have failed just because outsiders dislike us...

"It can be helpful to know how others perceive us, but not always. In our self-esteem-oriented, easily offended, suffering-adverse world, I fear that the church is too eager to be liked. 'As we study the New Testament,' suggests Trueblood, 'we soon realize that part of the power of the early Christian Movement arose from the clear recognition that it was by no means popular or generally accepted. The hope of reaching the masses with a redemptive power was always prefaced by the clear recognition that the opposition was intense as well as abundant.' Of course Christianity has an 'image problem.' At times, this is our own fault. But at other times, our lack of an image problem has been just as damning" (pp. 80-81).

DeYoung touches on something critically important here. We must not become obsessed with how we appear as Christians. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we must concentrate on being the best followers of Christ possible. If we concentrate on doing good, our reputations are likely to take care of themselves. If we concentrate on our reputations, we are likely to become like the Pharisees of the first century: more concerned about the opinions of men than of God. We don't want to be image-obsessed narcissists. We want to be God-honoring Christians.

"We need to be careful about our language. I think I know what people mean when they talk about redeeming the culture or partnering with God in His redemption of the world, but we should really pick another word. Redemption has already been accomplished on the cross. We are not co-redeemers of anything. We are called to serve, bear witness, proclaim, love, do good to everyone, and adorn the gospel with good deeds, but we are not partners in God's work of redemption.

"Similarly, there is no language in Scripture about Christians building the kingdom. The New Testament, in talking about the kingdom, uses words like enter, seek, announce, see, receive, look, come into, and inherit...

"Most importantly, I have a hard time hearing the gospel in the missional critique of the church. At best, the gospel is about a 'relationship with Jesus.' At worst it is nothing but a 'personal life-transforming experience' and 'people realizing their full potential as beings created in the image of God.' It's possible to put a good face on all these euphemisms, but this is not a clear gospel.

"When I hear people getting sick of church, I almost always see at the same time a minimizing of, or growing indifference toward, or ambiguous terminology for such phrases as 'substitutionary atonement,' 'justification by faith alone,' the necessity of faith and repentance,' 'the utter inability of man to save himself,' and 'the centrality of the cross and resurrection.' I really want to assume that the new missional Christians still believe we are sinners in need of grace, and that Jesus' death paid our debt and propitiated the wrath of God and that we must repent of our sin and trust Jesus alone for our salvation. I want to assume this, but I wish I didn't have to. I wish the glory of Christ crucified, the offense of the cross, and the necessity of conversion were more explicitly stated and more clearly central" (pp. 49-50).

Our message must be clear, accurate, and biblical. I have nothing more to add to the author's words.

I highly recommend Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck's Why We Love the Church. It's available in bookstores and from online book distributors like amazon.com.

Just Do Your Part

"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27).

In Uncommon, Tony Dungy wrote, "We use faith all the time in football as well. Our Cover 2 defense requires a great deal of faith, and it can take players quite a while to get acclimated. Some never do. Because the defense is so assignment oriented, our players need to have trust and faith for it to work. They aren't allowed to freelance and simply run to the ball. They have to protect their areas, stay in their gaps, and 'trust the system.' They have to trust that everyone else will do his particular assignment and have faith that if that occurs, the defense will be effective" (p. 208).

As I read that paragraph (especially the sentences I italicized), I realized that the church needs to operate like a football team's Cover 2 defense. Each member needs to be responsible for his area, stay in his gap, and trust the system to work. Each member needs to care for the people within his sphere of influence. Each member needs to use his gifts to better the lives of others and to honor Christ in the process. Each member needs to trust that other members are doing their parts to fulfill their Lord's goals. Then the church will be effective.

My responsibilities may push me into the spotlight at times, but usually it would be a rare occurrence. Most defensive football players get a tackle every once in a while, but few get one on every play. And none would be able to get anything done without the other 10 teammates doing their parts. In most games, some of the defensive players never get a tackle, but by playing their positions well, they aid those who do. Whether they look important or not, every member is important. All of us need to help each other by doing our parts, whatever those parts may be, so that the church will accomplish what it needs to do.

Religion in the News

Yesterday's edition of USA Today contained two important articles about religion.

At www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-american-religion-ARIS_N.htm, you will find a report about how the American people are changing in their religious affiliations. A large number are abandoning Christianity for a variety of reasons.

At http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/03/tough-love-and.html#more, you will find an opinion column about why the poor are attracted to theologically conservative Christianity.

Bibles and Churches

"Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?" (Acts 2:8)

From the first day of the church, God has made it clear that he wants people to hear the good news of Christ in their own languages. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit enabled the apostles to proclaim the message in a wide variety of languages to a diverse audience.

In the years since then, the message has been preserved in the Bible. Missionaries have traveled the globe, translating the gospel into many more languages.

In the English-speaking world, we have been blessed with numerous translations of the Bible, from the old King James Version to the newer English Standard Version. Some versions have been excellent. They have been accurate and understandable. Some versions have been horrible. They have altered the meaning of words in order to deny key doctrines such as the deity of Jesus Christ. Some versions have been very good, but with an ever-changing language, they have become difficult to understand. No translation has been perfect. Some have been great. Some have been atrocious.

In a similar way, churches translate the gospel into their circumstances with varying degrees of success. Some churches present an accurate and understandable message about Christ. They reach people around them without changing the gospel. Some churches present a terribly inaccurate message, even misleading people into obvious heresy. Other churches present the right message, but in a difficult form for people to grasp.

As with Bible translations, no church is perfect. Some churches are great. Some are awful. The goal is to be a church with credibility, a church with an understandable and accurate message that is being lived out in the lives of its ordinary members.