This question is sometimes raised by people who are looking for a reason not to go to church.
There may be many reason for this - eg. bad church experiences in the past, fear, laziness, etc. Many people say that they can worship God just as well, if not better, by digging in their garden or riding their surfboard. Surely this is better than sitting in a stuffy old building.
In one sense they are right, for God is not looking for church attenders. A Christian is not defined by what they DO for God, but by what God has DONE for them in Jesus. Going to church, praying, reading the Bible, donating money to charities - these are all good things to DO, but they do not make us Christians. We need to rely on what Jesus has DONE for us.
No one can make themselves acceptable to God, because everyone has turned away from him, and is under his judgement. But Jesus willingly and freely took that judgement upon himself, and it is by placing our trust in Jesus' death for us that we receive forgiveness and become members of God's family.
Of course, it is natural that once we are in God's family we would want to meet with other members of the family. The Bible describes the church as a meeting of believers who gather to encourage and build up one another by prayer, hearing the Bible read and taught, using their gifts, and serving one another in love. When this happens church will be a positive experience.
Church attendance, like Bible reading, prayer, and acts of kindness, does not produce faith, but is the product of faith. In the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and in the history of the early church (the Acts of the Apostles), Jesus so identifies himself with his gathered people that to ignore them, or to fail to love them appropriately is to deny our relationship with him. Authentic Christians recognise that while the Christian faith is a personal matter, it is not a private matter.
by Stephen Abbott
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