So Do I Have To Go To Church?

As we have been processing this question, why do we have to go to church when we are the church, I can imagine some are fearful that I am trying to get rid of the church service. But that is not true.

Just because we are the church does not give us a reason to forsake the assembly of believers coming together to worship God. Jesus spent time in the synagogue teaching and preaching because it was what He did while He was going from place to place. He made it part of His life. Check out the believers in Acts 2:40-47. Here we find the believers continuing steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and spending time daily in the temple together.

Being the church is a change of thinking. If you do not go to church to fulfill some kind of unwritten law of being a Christian, then why go to a building? To worship God! Fellowships of believers is not to be about our programs, event, classes, etc. - it is to be about God! Somewhere our mindset has shifted from just simply going to show our love of God to what can I do at the church to prove God.

How powerful would our churches be if the pastor shifted from teaching his wonderful sermon to leading people to see a holy God. What would happen if our singing moved from "I" centered (think about how many songs talk about what I will do or what I am) to God centered. What if instead of people coming to a building to get something, they cam to give something. If this were to happen then maybe we could become the church that storms the gates of hell rather than sitting in our ivory tower watching people go to hell!

So I do not advocate that we never assemble together, but that our assembly is about the church coming together to truly worship a holy God!