Why Attend Church?
Can God's Temple be Duplicated at Home?
Over the years I have met people who have chosen not
to join a church, choosing, rather, to "worship" at home. Some have
convinced themselves church is a waste of time, and feel they can be close to
God while staying home on a Sunday morning. Others believe none of the churches
teach the bible according to their own interpretation, and choosing to worship
in the privacy of their own home, assure themselves they won't have to hear any
false teachings.
Some people have chosen to stay away from church
because of past conflict with a clergyman, or perhaps got tired of hearing
pleas for money, and have convinced themselves that giving to a charity is
money better spent (in reality, church goers tend to outspend non-church goers
in charitable giving).
In truth, God has given us the Church as the very
place wherein we can grow spiritually, while enjoying the protection, and the
blessings, of being in weekly contact with other believers. Just like an
earthly family, we don't always enjoy the presence of other members, but it is
often those difficult and uncomfortable moments that help us grow the most. As
well, there are blessings that would never be experienced, should we remain
apart from fellow Christians.
In Luke 4:16, we read that Our Lord Jesus Christ was
regularly in the temple, for
"He went to Nazareth, where he had been
brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his
custom." It was Christ's regular practice to go to church, "As he
always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place." If Our Lord
Jesus made it a priority to meet together with other believers, how can we
excuse ourselves from doing the same.
Perhaps the most important reason for weekly church
attendance lies in the fact that it is only in the church where we can receive
Holy Communion, for Our Lord went so far as to say that unless we eat of His
flesh, and drink of His blood, we will have no life in us (John 6:53). It is in
the reception of Holy Communion where we receive the grace needed to grow
spiritually, and where we are empowered to live in all holiness and truth.
Finally, the neglect of corporate worship grieves the
Holy Spirit who lives within the individual believer and the Church as a whole,
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the
day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30)".
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
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