462 reasons to not go to church

1)  Norm gets more welcomes entering the bar then we do when we go to church
2)  The church is full of hypocrites
3)  The church has aided in my suffering of the dis's - disappointed, disillusioned, disheartened, disenchanted.
4)  No one cares
5)  It is too hard to break into all the cliques - again goes back to #1
6)  The messages are boring
7)  The singing is dated
8)  I have been hurt by... and I cannot forgive what they have done to me
9)  Why get dressed up when I can just watch it a great speaker on TV at the couch church
10) I worked all weekend and I need one day to sleep in
462)  The church is there for the people that need it and I don't.  I am fine on my own!

I am not sure if you would adopt to any of the reasons listed above or if you are in between 10 and 462.  There are many people that have not gone through the struggles each Sunday of whether to get up and go to church or whether to stay home.  Their reasons might be as simple as "this is what we do" or "this is what my parents did so this is what we do as a family."  You may be one of those parents that are forcing your teenage children to get out of bed and go to church each Sunday.

I grew up in the church.  I remember going from a very young age where we would dress up in our Sunday best, put our hair up in curlers the night before and look picture perfect entering the church as a family.  The children remained sitting in the services with their parents trying to not fall asleep and listen as the pastor spoke.  We attended church on Sunday morning and evening and mid week for bible lessons.  I never resented it but just did it because this is what you did.  Church has changed a lot since I was a kid.  We can go to church in jeans, we don't sing out of a hymn book and we are not scared into becoming Christians by watching some movie about being left behind.  Church has become a more comfortable, inviting place to come to yet so many of us don't want to be there. 

I have friends and family that have made the choice to not attend church - I made the same decision myself over the last couple of years.  Is it the right decision?  I guess you have to decide for yourself.  I have come to terms with a few things though.  The people and the church are always going to disappoint!  There is always going to be someone or something I see within the church that is going to leave me with a "yucky feeling."  We do not live our faith 24/7.  We are not the same people that walk down the streets, work in businesses, telling jokes, watching movies that walk in the door on Sunday morning.  So, as number two says "we are hypocrites."  Not a big revelation at all (a little sarcasm).  We should not be putting on a different mask for the different occasions in our life.  It is kind of like those undies that you can get for different days of the week.  Which mask am I going to wear today?  Coming on a little bit too strong?  Sometimes it is necessary to push a little bit and see if people are listening.  I am not stepping up on the soap box to point fingers.  It is hard to live what you believe in anything 24 hours a day.  You may be on a "take care of myself plan" - you are eating well, exercising daily, drinking a gallon of water.  Good for you!  But every once and a while you blow it just a little.  Mine was the other day when I just thought I needed to have a Dr. Pepper.  I had not had one all summer.  The first sip was great and after that I did not enjoy it at all.   If we profess to be Jesus-followers, believers, Christians it is a daily thing not a "Sunday" thing.

We live in a 'small world' and we are noticed for the way that we behave in our jobs during the week and how we interact with others.  We are noticed when we are out on the sports field or the hockey arena.  If we are seen in church; we are watched outside of the doors.  It is like the paparazzi.  They are always watching and waiting to catch us in the place or in that predicament that will be splashed all over the front page of the tabloid.  Even if we are of the mind that we do not go to church but we still worship God from our home we are being watched.  Maybe you don't care.  Maybe you feel the same way as popeye when he said "I am what I yam."  Totally your choice.  But, if we do profess to be Christians and others know then maybe we need to do a little inventory, a little self analysis.  How do I want to be perceived?  How do I want people to see me?  Do I want to help people to see what Jesus can offer them or do I want to hinder it?

There are a lot of reasons to not go to church.  I have used many of them.  I have been disappointed with people in the church and the "Sunday christians."  I have been let down.  I have been hurt.  But, in the end we have to make a decision of whether or not that is going to break us or change us.  Is it going to be something I am going to learn from or is it something that is going to stay with me and fester within so that I become bitter with the church as a whole because of one person's mistakes.  There is a verse in the Bible that I love and would like to share with you.  Hebrews 10 - "Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back is drawing near."

Yes, there are at least 462 reasons to not go to church but I can think of a few reasons that I/we should go.  We need to be there to grow in our faith, learning from others, studying God's word together, helping one another in our spiritual journey.  We need to be there for ourselves and for others but I believe that God wants me to be there.  To come to a place to worship Him in a group with others that need Him just as much as I do.