Why do you go to Church?

Why do you go to church? What is your main motivation? Do you go because you have always been forced to go and it has become a habit? Is this something that your family has always done so you wonder why you should stop now? Is this a time of the week where you can catch up on the latest gossip or just a genuine time to see some close friends and enjoy some fellowship? Do you go to worship and be encouraged to live your faith out loud?

These are questions we all should ask ourselves when we meet with other believers and that is: Why am I ultimately here? Are my motives honoring to God? Think about these as we continue to compare and contrast Cultural Christianity vs. Biblical Christianity. Here is my comparison:

Cultural Christians go to church out of habit, family tradition, or to socialize, while biblical Christians go to church to worship and grow in Christ as well as closer to other Christians!

What is our purpose for getting together on Sunday mornings? Scripture does actually command us to do this! Hebrews 10:25 states: “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” So we as Christians are COMMANDED to meet together in some sort of community in order to encourage one another in Christ. We see that the main reason for meeting was to encourage one another to be focused on Christ and His return. Christ is what the meeting was ultimately all about!

I recently had the opportunity to read the book “Radical” by David Platt! This book challenged me on so many levels I can’t even begin to describe. What struck me in the early chapters were Platt’s stories of having church with Asian believers in secret. They would meet in small, dark venues with a dim light and nothing but a bible. There was no entertainment, no speakers, no padded pews, and no air-conditioning. Oh yeah, and they would have a bible study that would last twelve hours sometimes. These people were hungry for the word of God! Oh and by the way, if they were to get caught, they would face prison time and possibly death. This really caused me to evaluate my own walk with Jesus, and ask the question: Why do I go to church? Here in cultural Christianity many of us complain if the service goes over five minutes or if it’s too hot/cold, the band played a song we didn’t like, etc! All the while we are allowed to worship without fear of any kind of persecution!

My prayer is that the church today in any culture would return to the place of wanting to gather together with other believers out of a love for Jesus and a desire to worship Him.