The value of going to church

by Amy Reardon

I

t was only a few minutes before Sunday morning worship would begin, but I stood alone in the Fellowship Hall of my corps. I had to linger there; the presence of God was pulsating throughout the room. Just a few more moments and I would go, and I would feel God in the sanctuary too, but for now I was enjoying him in the spot where I usually enjoyed our monthly potluck potato casseroles.

Barbara, a woman about 20 years my senior, entered the large room. “Barbara,” I called out to her, “I feel God in this room.” She replied, “When I came in the building and was greeted by so many friendly faces, I felt such a feeling of love and acceptance. It was overwhelming. Is that what you mean?” “Yes,” I affirmed. It was a little different from what I was sensing, to be honest, but her experience was surely just another manifestation of God’s presence.

The next Sunday one my neighbors from the addiction recovery house next door showed up at church. He had responded to our invitation a number of times, but I didn’t expect to see him on this day, Christmas Sunday. I hadn’t seen him for weeks, and had only passed along a message to one of his housemates that Christmas Sunday would be a great day to be in church. By the end of the morning, he was weeping openly and hugging my husband and me repeatedly. Two days later, Christmas Day, he sat in our living room fingering the Bible we’d just given him. “I think about Jesus all the time,” he said. “He’s all I want to talk about. But no one I live with cares about that. I don’t know what to do next. I don’t know the next step.” I had never seen anyone so desperate to begin the Christian race.

My husband and I talked to him about how to read the Word and promised to keep him accountable. We talked about prayer. We talked about how his spiritual journey would be a light to his housemates. And we talked about committing himself to church. Now that he is claiming Christ, he has to claim the body of Christ. And this man, who has lived with the burden of guilt and the sting of repeated rejection, now has a place where he belongs. He belongs to the body of Christ, and he can begin relationships where a group of believers and seekers gather, at Seattle Temple corps. “I love it there,” he said. “I feel so great whenever I go.”

I am bemused when I hear disciples of Christ say they don’t like church. I don’t think they could possibly mean that they don’t like the Church, the very body of Christ itself, the living organism. Rather, they are critical of church services and programs, and often have ill feeling toward buildings that have been designated for worship, teaching and congregating especially. As I argue for the benefit of church attendance, let me state the obvious: “church” is people, their relationships to each other through Christ, and their collective mission. It is not a place. It is not a program. But I would like to explore briefly what benefits can be found in being an active participant in a defined expression of the Church, including attending regular, multi-generational, congregational worship and learning events. I’m defending weekly worship services, Bible study, and maybe even (gasp) the Home League. I’d also like to defend the goodness of an actual church building; it is not a necessity for Christian worship, but it is not a hindrance, either.

In Red Moon Rising, Pete Greig voices the complaint of many Christians: “ ‘standing in the gap’ between God and hurting humanity… isn’t a task that can be cloistered away all the time in sanitized environments”(p. 225). Though that is true, church is a place where we can fuel up, encourage one another, learn more about our faith, worship corporately. Church is the place where the soldiers prepare for the next battle. There is a sign at the exit to our corps parking lot that reads: “Your next worship-service begins now.” Exactly right. We entered the building to receive instruction and inspiration, we polished our armor a bit, and we leave prepared to communicate God’s love to our community through word and deed.

Intergenerational Connections
In I Corinthians 12:27 Paul writes: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” In the verses just above that statement, he explains how the body is designed so that each part is distinct and needs every other part. None is unimportant. My heart sinks at the desire of many Christians to cleave the body into chunks – particularly by generation. It seems as though those who de-value church or lean toward a more bohemian type of worship would prefer to associate mainly with their own generation. What these people don’t seem to understand is that the rest of us need them. Their vision and perspective are key to the health of the church. Similarly, they need Christians who are mature in age and faith and ripe to mentor, but the younger Christians run away, criticizing the older Christians because they do things a bit differently. Young adults should also consider what they have to offer to the children at church. My young sons look to some of the young men at our church as their heroes. They admire the guys in the worship band more than they admire actors and athletes, and I am quite glad of that.

I John 4:21 says: “The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” And Galatians 3:28 says: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” If God would have us love all brothers and sisters, if he will not allow us to categorize ourselves or others, and if he gave instructions in Titus 2 for intergenerational modeling in the church, it must pain him to see generations retreat from each other.

Sacred Space
Sorry to say it, but institutionalism is a natural part of the development of any movement. It can lead to death, of course, but it doesn’t have to. Yes, the early church met in people’s houses. Yes, we institutionalized, bought property, etc. And of course much medieval ugliness went along with that. But does that make church buildings suspect and does it have to spell death? I hardly think so. We’re still here.

I have nothing against house churches, but I do not consider them any holier than any other church location. When considering that the early believers met in homes, let us not forget a couple of things. First, they initially considered themselves a part of Judaism, and also still went to the temple. Second, as things progressed and spread and The Way became less of a Jewish sect, they were often persecuted. I should think that the early Christians longed for a space to call their own, a space where they could gather and worship safely. And I believe that persecuted Christians today would relish the opportunity to meet in a chapel rather than assemble secretly in a home. My point is this: just because the early Christians did something a certain way doesn’t mean it is the best or only way. Thank God we have the freedom and resources to build beautiful sanctuaries to honor God. Thank God we have places to sing, dance, learn, eat, celebrate. These should be regarded as a gift from God.

God has always desired sacred spaces. Even as his people traveled through the desert,his tabernacle was transported and maintained. When the initial temple was built, no expense was to be spared. In Haggai 1, the Lord was angry when the Israelites who had returned from exile began to reconstruct their own homes but neglected the House of God.

And then there is Jesus. Jesus loved synagogues and the Temple. In the second chapter of Luke, the boy Jesus doesn’t join his family party when they leave the Temple. They find him after a panicked search and he simply says, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Why should we treat modern houses of God with disdain when Jesus had this attitude?

If You Were Looking for Jesus….
If you were a Jew around the year 30 A.D. and you heard that Jesus had come to your town, where would you look for him? According to the Gospels, your best guess would be the synagogue. Christians today sometimes paint Jesus as some sort of partier who was more likely to be found at a good feast than in a house of worship. Interested in this perception of Jesus (and rather liking it), I shuffled through the pages of both Mark and John to see how many times he could be found at a social gathering versus how many times he was at the Temple or a synagogue. I was quite liberal in labeling gatherings as social events, including even the final Passover dinner. In both Mark and John Jesus’ visits to places of worship outnumbered social events 3 to 1.

Scripture seems to reflect that Jesus regarded the houses of publicans and sinners as the mission field, and the houses of worship more like home. Perhaps we could speculate that if he were around today, the pubs or even Starbucks would be his mission field, but the churches would be home for him.

Some Christians protest that they receive more from a good discussion at Starbucks with their friends than they do at a church service. Though such encounters are important in my life too, I wouldn’t replace church worship with those conversations. My corps officers spend a great deal of time poring over Scripture and praying as they prepare their sermons. The worship committee is quite intentional in the meetings they structure. The music sections give much attention to their contributions. What right has anyone to say that these meetings are not good, not to the glory of God when so much godly preparation has gone into them? While it is true that God is present in the pub, why would he be more present in the pub than at a church on Sunday morning? When two or three are gathered in the name of Christ, he attends the gathering, even if it takes place in a church building. To be honest, the only times I’ve left a worship service feeling decidedly unblessed are the times I refused to be blessed.

Concluding Thought
Weekly worship and church programs need to be inclusive. That means that we must constantly be open to change and variety. That requires a great deal of cooperation from people who are often very different in personality, age, taste, etc. But then again, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (I Corinthians 12: 17-18).

Writer: Amy Reardon is a Salvation Army officer living and serving in Seattle, Washington. She grew up in Southern California and takes great pride in having been a UCLA Bruin. She loves to sing, play the euphonium, read, talk theology, travel and go to the movies. She loves almost any kind of music, from hip hop to opera, and really wishes she were a better dancer. Amy is married to Rob and they have three sons: Kyle, Wes and David. Together they comprise the loudest, craziest family on the block. Amy is the Christian Education Director, Northwest Division, U.S.A. Western territory.

6 Comments to The value of going to church

1. Thanks Amy,

   To me corporate worship, in a common space, anchors Christian life. Yes, sometimes, that fusty old sentiment, duty, is the only thing motivating me to show up, but it’s a duty to self because something is always better after than before.

   Andrea
Andrea614Regent on February 5th, 2008

2. Your words are well chosen and generously express the place of the consistant need for worship. Jesus’ ministry regularly emphasized the standard practice to share the Word of God together.
   Having a predictable time and a standard location for worship honors the structure of time and the need to be at the feet of Jesus.
   I always enjoy your topics!

   Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Jessie Irwin on February 5th, 2008

3. Thanks, Amy. You nailed it, and encouraged those of us for whom Sundays @ the Temple are vital to our faith journey.
Rob Birks on February 5th, 2008

4. This was an excellent column. I appreciate your sensitivity and firmness. This really helped me to cement the idea even more in my mind. I appreciate that you clearly backed up your thesis with scripture.

   Thanks so much.
Chuck Fowler on February 7th, 2008

5. I’m encouraged by these positive comments. Thanks, guys. I pray your Sundays in the pew or in the pulpit are a great joy to you and a sweet-smelling offering to the Lord.
Amy Reardon on February 7th, 2008

6. Amy, thanks for this wonderful article! I love what is possible to obtain only from the ‘multi-generational, congregational worship and learning events’! Most of the problems related to these events are due to unwillingness to change, something that you have mentioned.

   For me, personally, corporate worship is a place from which to draw strength and encouragement in order to go back outside the walls and live the life that Christ has called me to as a disciple.
Graeme Smith on February 8th, 2008

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