Growing up with Christian parents you go to church. Fortunately and unfortunately I was blessed and cursed with this habit engrained into my weekly schedule. To wake up on a Sunday morning without going to church never ceased to leave you a little bit empty and needy inside. Even when my parents stopped going to church now almost 5 years ago I kept going, it was a habit as regular as changing my underwear.
Sometimes I find this habit can do more damage than good. It allows people to get into the rut to assuming that church is all you need to do to stay right with God. As long as you can drag your butt out of bed and make it to church, you will be fine. That is quite a load and in our heads we all know it, but to get that into my heart took me a long time. It took a long time to make my relationship with God a personal and meaningful thing. It took a long time for me to separate that relationships status from the status of my church attendance. If I was feeling horrible and somehow I made it to church, for that time I was at church I would feel a little bit better. It’s almost like church had become a shot of some kind of drug to keep me going just a little bit longer.
I don’t know how often people still do this. Even being at Tyndale you will find an abnormal amount of people that just want to go to church, for the sake of going to church and nothing deeper. Just find me a church to go to and find me a ride and I will be there. If anyone goes to church simply for the sake of church, then I think they are missing the vital point of church.
Church as a habit has its good side also. The weekly reminder to show up at a service reminds you and keeps you in tact of your relationship with your community and fellow believers. It should probably never remind you of your relationship with God, that should be something that is kept up all week long. It’s hard for many though to keep Christian relationships moving and church offers an amazing place to do that. It’s a great habit to know that on Sunday mornings, or Saturday nights or whatever day is yours that that time is set apart for your gathering of believers. Going to church out of guilt or out of mundane routine probably won’t do much for you, you my as well stop wasting time.
It comes down to motivation, why do you go to church? Ask yourself this, and see if the reasons hold up, if they do, I’ll see you on Sunday. If not, may as well pay a visit to Bedside Baptist because it will be just as beneficial. I’m not saying God can’t do amazing things to those that are at church for the wrong reasons, but honestly, why waste your time. Figure out why you are doing these things, and then start to do them with all your heart into it, not just a routine. By making it a basic routine we are belittling the gathering of Saints to something as common as taking your morning piss or eating your midnight snack, it has no spiritual significance.
Once you and I start going to church for the right reasons, it won’t matter as much how crappy the music is, or how gross the building is. Your church, yes the boring one you grew up with, will become an entire new concept to you that you will look forward to going to every weekend instead of just going cause that’s just what you do.