Why do I go to church?

If you are a frequent reader of Out of My Hat, you already know that I am a follower of Jesus. Most might simply say that I am a Christian, but I feel that the term has become too generic in its meaning and is often misused and misunderstood.

This post is purely a sharing of my heart and is not meant to be an offense to anybody. It is certainly not meant to be critical of other believers. I just want to share the reasons that I go to church ask why others go to church. To be fair, the reason for this post is some confusion (on my part) over a recent sermon that I heard. I know that several pastors/preachers read Out of My Hat and this is not meant as a critique of their messages. I'm just wondering why we do church the way we...do church.

So...
Why do I go to church?

The simple answer is that I go to worship.
I go to worship my God.
I go to worship my God with other like-minded believers.
Together, we worship our God.

That's pretty much it.

It may sound strange to hear a preacher say this, but I don't go to church to hear a good sermon. I go to church to worship.

On most Sundays, I would be happy to sing praise and worship songs for an hour! I would be happy to stand before my God, praising, thanking, worshiping in song or prayer ... and then going out to lunch with some friends, never having heard a preached message.

To be honest, the structure of our services often confuses me.
It would appear that our services today are structured to center around "The Message."  Maybe that's the way it is supposed to be. Maybe the "You get out of church what you put into it" mentality of actually getting something out of church is how I should view the whole worship service.

But to my way of thinking, worship is about giving; not about getting!

If our purpose in going to church on Sunday morning is to get something from the experience, are we going to worship God or are we going to exploit His good nature and see what we can get from God? Are we coming with open hearts to meet with Him and honor Him as God, or are we coming with open hands to receive gifts and blessings that we somehow think we deserve because we managed to show up on a Sunday morning.

Two very different attitudes.

Time for a story break.

Back when my kids were young and we were pretty new members at Hopedale, there was a man named Gil Mitchell at our church. Gil was a friendly, white haired man that had a stick of Wrigley's Spearmint chewing gum for every kid in church on every Sunday morning, every Sunday evening and every Wednesday night. The kids didn't have to ask Gil for a piece of gum, they just had to show up and Gil was there with gum.

They might say, "Good morning, Mr. Gil!"
Gil would say, "Good morning, sweetie," (it didn't matter if it was a boy or girl, it was 'sweetie') and give them a piece of gum.

Sometimes a child would come up when Gil was speaking with somebody. The child would just wait patiently until Gil reached into his pocket and, without a word exchanged between them, handed him/her a piece of gum. A quick "thank you" from the child and off they ran!

In a simple way, I think this story gives us a picture of God. I'm not implying that the kids worshiped Gil. I'm just saying that they never had to ask Gil for a piece of gum. They knew that just being around Gil (in his presence) was enough to get them a blessing. That was just the way Gil was.

And it is the way God is. It is His nature to bless His children. When we gather for worship, it is the nature of God to bless us. When we stand before Him giving thanks and praise, it is the nature of God to bless us. He just can't help it. He wants to lavish His love on us. And I know that the blessing often comes as He speaks to us through His Word. But part of me really wonders why we need so much sermonizing about His Word.

Is it so unclear that we need countless commentaries and a degree in biblical studies to understand it? Is it really necessary to listen to a preacher read a few verses and then expound upon them for 30 minutes or so? I know that sharing some cultural background and historical notes can give better understanding to the Word. And I know that learning what the Bible has to teach us is important.

BUT--
Is that why we go to church?

When a sermon turns to social issues or becomes about government oppression of (our) religious freedoms, I tend to turn off and feel a little bit cheated. If sharing persecutions is to encourage us to pray for one another or to realize that we're not alone; that's okay. We need encouragement and we need to encourage others. But if talking about the banning of crosses or other religious symbols or activities on public lands is to incite anger and outrage, what good is accomplished?

When will we stop expecting a secular society to behave like followers of Jesus?
And when will we, as followers of Jesus, stop behaving like a secular society?

I really believe that our time of corporate worship is for God and God alone. I don't think that He should be expected to share that time with mothers (on Mother's Day) or fathers (on Father's Day) or veterans or country (on any of our patriotic holidays). He is God and should have all of our worship.

Our church activities on Sunday mornings will not change laws or governments. They are not meant to.
Our church activities on Sunday mornings will not change lives. We are powerless to do that.
Our church activities on Sunday mornings will not even change us until we are willing to give ourselves as living sacrifices to our God and Savior.
Our church activities on a Sunday morning will never convince a lost world that they are living lives contrary to the will of God. Only God can do that.

The world has more than enough messengers of gloom and doom.

We have been chosen as His messengers of Hope.
We have been chosen as His messengers of Truth.
We have been chosen as His messengers of Life.

And so my message today is a simple one:

God loves you.
And Jesus died for you!

John <><