The Erie Bible Class

Why Go To Church

This question is often asked by a skeptical society that does not see any benefit to church attendance. Let’s see why they have come up to this conclusion:

They have lack of knowledge about what the Bible says about worship and church attendance. Hebrews 10:25 gives this clear command to the Christian:   “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching”.

 In all my years of ministry I have never met a Christian who was faithfully serving the Lord but was “hit or miss” with church attendance. Church attendance is a time to corporately worship the Lord. The Greek word for worship is proskyneō.  This is the word for worship most often used in the New Testament and it means to “fall down prostrate” or “kiss the king’s feet”.  In other words the “Church Worship Service” is a very serious time of reflection of an individual’s spiritual condition and conviction from the Holy Spirit on areas of sin. The problem is that people have never been taught what a corporate worship service is supposed to be. It is not a time to entertain or make you feel good! The purpose of a worship service is to open or enhance our relationship with the Lord by the preaching of God’s Word and Holy Spirit intervention. The church service is God’s way of accomplishing His plans for the individual by confronting him/her with truth in a corporate setting.

I know some may say this can happen during a devotion setting or during private quite time, but God does something in a Holy Spirit guided church service that can not be mimicked or duplicated. This principal is mentioned by Paul in 1 Cor 1:18-25 where he stresses the importance of preaching and having a discerning spirit.

The church service or worship service that is based upon the above scriptures can only be for the saved!  How can non-believer worship the Lord whom they do not accept? They problem is that the modern evangelical movement has designed the Worship Service around the unsaved, thus there is no Holy Spirit guidance or conviction; the service is primarily guided by the flesh.  Thus the conclusion is “take it or leave it”

I commend Bill Hybels for his honesty in evaluating his methods of church growth. In a recent book co-written with his executive pastor, Greg Hawkins, he said that in essence their (Willow Creek’s) methods have encouraged shallow Christianity.  “We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

What Bill Hybels and Rick Warren have done is created a “genie” they cannot put back into the bottle. Thousands of pastors have followed their methods of “do whatever it takes to attract the crowd” without ever considering how this waters down the message of sin and its consequences. These pastors now realize that the “cookie” that attracts the crowd must get bigger and better or the crowd will stop coming. Gimmicks like a McDonald’s theme service, using Christian Mimes and Comedy Nights are a mockery to the house of God because they never challenge the audience to face up to their sin and what God requires for forgiveness.  If it’s all about fun and tricking the seekers to “see how we are just like them” what has been accomplished? Fads have come and gone in Christianity and the “Seeker Friendly Model” has now evolved to a new fad called the Emerging Church.  This fad rejects traditional church doctrine and its theology denies the exclusivity of Christ for forgiveness of sin.  Further, it desires dialogue rather than solid biblical preaching. Pastors in the Seeker Movement that try to stop this drift to the Emerging Church will find much the same resistance we found when we confronted the methods and pragmatism of the Seeker Movement 20 years ago.

So what can be done? A revolution of back to the bible preaching would be a great start. Let people know that Christ died for all but a price must be paid if you are going to follow Him. Pastors need to challenge people to serve and follow Christ and it’s not all about you but following Christ involve service and sacrifice. Bring back God honoring Christian music that has doctrinal message and set the stage for the people to receive the preached word. Lastly, love people by give them the truth not some Christian pop-culture bait and switch tactic that will lead to false professions and discourage many from never attending church again after the “cookie” no longer attracts them.