Why Should We Go To Church?

At 11 AM every Sunday morning people gather in our building, the Jicarilla Apache Reformed Church. Some people are present nearly every Sunday. Some are present perhaps half the time and some are very irregular in their attendance.  Some people have a deep and powerful faith. They have leaned on God through hard times in their lives and know that it was Lord that carried them through. For others faith in Jesus is something that shapes who they are but they find the struggle to live by that faith each day to be a challenge. And there may be others who come on Sunday but just aren’t sure what to make of this Jesus guy they keep hearing about.

                                                                                            

We call this gathering worship. We gather to give praise to God. To praise him for who he is, and for what he has done, looking forward to the fulfillment of the promises that he makes in the Bible. As a pastor I think those are some pretty good reasons to gather on Sunday morning, but are there any others? What other answers would we give to the question: "Why should I go to church?"  

I was reading the Old Testament prophet Micah when I came across an excellent answer to that question. Like most of the Old Testament prophets Micah is speaking on behalf of God to a people who are not particularly interested in what he has to say. There are words of warning, but also glimpses of hope. In Micah 4 the prophet looks forward to a day when the house of the Lord will be established and people will come to it. In verse 2 he says:

"Come, let us go to up the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths."

Micah gives two reason to go to church; 1) That we might be taught God's ways, and 2) That we might walk in God's paths. These two things go hand-in-hand. They are both necessary, and they are given in the right order. We learn God's ways so that we can walk in God's ways..

We live in a time when we are bombarded with information. From nearly every direction there is a voice telling us to embrace a particular truth and live a particular way. Some of those voices are speaking with God's truth, but many are not. As God's people we can, and should, open up our Bibles and read them on our own. We also can, and should, live as people of prayer, seeking for God to encourage and guide us each day. But one of the blessings of gathering each Sunday morning is moving from living as individual followers of Jesus to spending time learning God's ways together. 

What was true for Micah is also true for us. God's people were coming together, to learn from God, and then to live in ways that showed the world that they were God's people. And that remains a very good reason for us to come to church each Sunday. The world can be a very confusing place but each Sunday as we sing, pray and hear from God's word we learn his ways, so that we may walk with confidence on his paths, to his praise glory.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.