“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing…” – Hebrews 10: >23-25a
There are many excuses that folk use for not going to church. Chief among them is that the Church is full of hypocrites. Unfortunately, a common misunderstanding is that professing Christians or churchgoers are somehow better people. The very act of coming to Christ and attending His Church is a statement of a common need for us as sinners to have an encounter with the living God in Jesus who alone can change our lives for the better.
So we need to understand that churchgoers are not perfect, “..for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.”(Ephesians 28-9)
We need to accept one another in genuine humility. We need to make allowance for the fact that we are all but a work in progress.
Another reason used for not attending Church is that it is repetitive, dull and boring.
In reality, life is a structure of work, eating, family, recreation and all those things too can become stale and uninteresting.
It all comes down to what we put into it. We should attend church with a sense of anticipation and excitement, looking for ways to give rather than always wanting to receive. The Church needs to be mature enough to encourage more exciting, active participation and engage in more open discussion with all its members, “…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)
We should avoid all meaningless routine and ritual, no matter how well it worked in the past. Furthermore, God has given His Holy Spirit to infuse His Church with pulsating life. We should call upon Him to give us that life.
So, let us lay aside these and other arguments and excuses and let us meet together in His Name.
A PRAYER: Lord, help us to heed Your Word and to meet regularly with Your people, the Church, for Christ’s sake we pray. Amen.
