More reasons to go to church

I just checked my site meter. I like to check it periodically just to be sure that the rise in my total number of hits is not just the times I come to my own blog to check updates on the other blogs I like to read. I learned that the main reason people have found my blog is by googling "reasons to go to church." They are then led to this old post. I really hope that post has helped someone make the decision to become an active member of a local church. I reread my old post today and was reminded that I wrote it based on notes I had taken during a sermon of the same title. It contains several Scriptural reasons that we believers are supposed to be faithful to their church. I decided to elaborate on that and give some more personal/practical reasons why we go to church.

First of all, I believe it is imperative to give my children a SOLID foundation. I have heard many parents claim that they will wait until their children are older and let them make their own decisions about religion. I am sorry, but that is about the stupidest thing I have ever heard. When our children are 16 years old, we do not hand them a few thousand dollars and send them off alone to a car lot to purchase their first car with no more than a "Good Luck Son!". Of course a teen with a freshly printed drivers license and a wad of cash in their pocket does not have the life skills needed to handle a shifty car salesman and make the best decision without any input from a parent that loves them and wants them to be safe and have a reliable vehicle. If you would not expect a teen to make a decision about a car without parental guidance, why would we ever expect them to be able to make such life changing decisions like serving God, choosing friends or choosing their spouse without parental guidance? Their eternal future is a stake when it comes to religious decisions. When we allow them to make that decision without ever having taught them anything about it we have set them up for disaster. The fact that my children are at church 3 times a week (along with several other times the church doors are open), are homeschooled with a Bible based curriculum, are taught to pray, and are reminded to have Godly characters most definitely does not take away their own free will to decide for themselves. There will come a time that my children are grown and on their own and will have to decide for themselves whether or not to continue in the ways that they were taught. My job, as their mother, is to be sure that they have the information they need to make the best decision.
Another reason we go to church has to do with family. Not necessarily just our biological family but our church family. We do not call each other "Brothers and Sisters in Christ" for nothing. Our church family is there to be a help and an encouragement to us and we are there to do the same for them. We can not do that if we do not know each other and we can not know each other if we never spend time together. Often times, our fellow believers come from homes that were not filled with believers. Without a strong and healthy church family, they are then left with nobody to turn to when in need of spiritual uplifting. It is important for us to be there for our brothers and sisters. There will inevitably be a time in our life that we are the one in need of this spiritual uplifting. If we have failed to build relationships within our church, our church family will not know when we need help and will not know us well enough to know how to help us. A strong and healthy church family is only the result of church members that GO to church faithfully and know and love each other.
When I ask my kids why they like to go to church, " to have fun" is always part of one of the answers. When you have a relationship with other members and their children are your children's friends, fun is always included. We all love to reunite with friends. We need the fellowship, the companionship that comes with a church family. Anyone that claims that church is boring has obviously never been in the church kitchen full of ladies preparing for a dinner after the sermon, or ridden a church bus full of other members on the way to anywhere, or had a church wide cookout complete with ultimate Frisbee games played with people you normally see in suits and ties. I have been in no other situation in my entire life that you would find more fun, joy, silliness, jokes, singing, giggles, goofiness, games or laughter than at church. Definitely NOT a boring place!
Now,of course, our main reason and purpose to be in church is to worship our Lord, learn from the Word of God and thank and praise our Savior but I wanted to address some of the excuses I have heard from people on why they do not go to church. I love my church, I love my preacher, and I love my church family but most of all, I LOVE my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that is reason enough for me.