Good morning and happy Sunday...many of you know I refer to Sunday as "tank fillin' day" you might ask me why and I am always here to tell you!!! I love going to church, I love the feeling I get when I am within the walls of the spirit...I love the joy in my fellow church goers and I love love love the messages that are spoken. When I leave church I feel refreshed, I feel happy, I feel FULL....I so love the spirit and am so very thankful that I can get that "fill up" just by being a part of a group of people that are there for the same reason...It is like..for me...my internal spiritual tank has been depleted and when I go on Sunday's I am able to refill, I am able to get that UMPH back into my heart and I feel ready to conquer anything that comes my way the coming week. Not going to lie to you...satan would have me do other things on Sunday morning, like sit a little to long to have time to get up, dressed, and ready to go, he likes to throw broken glass in my path hoping it will stop me from completing my mission...."just sit a little longer Dawn, you don't have to get ready yet!" "It is very cold out this morning, a chill you will not get over quickly if you go out!" "you really don't have anything to wear, you wore that dress the last time you went to church!" " You know...so and so...is going to be there and she is never friendly to you!" You know the such and such family, they go on Sunday and act all churchy, and then you see them in town not being very churchy!" and the excuses keep on coming, coming, coming....Well all I can say to you satan....get out of my way, close your mouth, get out of my head because I AM GOING TO GO AND FILL MY TANK!!! LOL...DO you ever have things such as this happen on Sunday morning and you decide not to go??? I promise if you will get up and go this morning, or this afternoon, or this evening, you will be so full of the spirit that you will wonder why it was so hard to get up, get ready, and gooooooo....Join in with others who are in need of the spirit and allow yourself to be full! What's that??? Yes I used to feel the same way...I don't need church, I can study the bible right here at home, I can pray and honor GOD here I don't have to go to church to feel the spirit...VERY TRUE, you can and you should keep God in your home, you certainly can feel the spirit...I pray you do....right there in your house...it is not that you cannot get what you need at home, it is the unity, it is the over abundance you receive when you sit in that group of people, it is the fellowship...the love....the goodness that overflows....sure there are people there that are living a different lifestyle on the outside of the church than they should be...but that is not your problem, that is not for you to judge...remember Don't try and take God's job...that is a promotion you will never receive!!! Just go and let your heart be filled by all that is good in the church session...Don't worry about anyone else!
I chose this little discussion today because as with many of you...satan nags at me very strongly on Sunday mornings....I am not the only one!!!
I hope you enjoy the read and that you will put down what you are doing, get ready and gooooo!!!
It seems a rather simple question doesn’t it, why go to Church? You would figure that millions of people would know the answer to such a question within the blink of an eye. But, if so many do, why do we walk into Churches filled with people who would rather not be there? The question is simple, but the answer is difficult.
My Personal Battle with Church
In order to respond to such a question, I’d rather just tell you a bit of my story. You see, for years I went to Church and was even very involved. I didn’t particularly like Church, but I felt it was a requirement of my faith, so I did it anyway. Frankly, I have a sneaky suspicion I was not the only one at Church on Sunday morning attending for a reason other then my own personal desire. The facts of the matter are that I thought it was the thing I was supposed to do and so I did it. Plain and simple.
As I grew up I still wrestled with Church. I failed to understand why so many people went to Church that didn’t want to be there. I mean, I understood why they went, but my gut said that those people really could LOVE Church if something was different about Church. The facts are, those people sitting in service Sunday morning, waiting to bolt for the parking lot, simply aren’t being reached in the right way.
The facts are, those people sitting in service Sunday morning, waiting to bolt for the parking lot, simply aren’t being reached in the right way.
When I began to come to this conclusion, that those people could really LOVE Church if they found the right kind of Church, it was life shattering.
It might sound silly, but the reason I didn’t really like Church was because I had a holy discontent with what happened after Church. I would walk out of the building and it was as if the Church had installed magic metal detectors that switched my brain off ‘Church mode’ and back to ‘life mode’ immediately upon exit. I was going to Church, but what good was it if when I left the building and nothing was different? What good was Church if I attended for months and my day to day actions were barely affected? Sure, I would often remark that particular sermons were moving, but was I really changed? Could other people really see that I was changed? Or were the sermons just eloquently delivered and intellectually stimulating?
My Breakthrough
The reality was I didn’t want to go to Church because Church wasn’t really equipping me for the mission God gave me, the mission God gave all of us.You see, in Matthew, God himself gives man a mission we aptly nickname “The Great Commission,”
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (v. 18-20)
Therefore, if Church was aimed at feeding me the spiritual calories I needed to be nourished, but not equipping me to do as Jesus said and make disciples, something was inherently wrong. When I realized that, I dramatically altered my Church attendance strategy. It’s comical, but today I go to Church for the same reason any superhero has a home base – to gather together with those people on the same mission and, together, re-equip for the mission we all go on tomorrow – to mission to make disciples.
So, Why Go To Church?
If we thought of Church not as a place we go to be fed, but as place we go to better serve tomorrow, what would Church look like?
If we thought of Church not as a place we go to be fed, but as place we go to better serve tomorrow, what would Church look like?
Would you have the same feelings about Sunday morning? Would you act the same way come Monday? Would the Church itself look and act completely different? Personally, I think if the Church would become more about what happens on Monday-Saturday and less about what happens on Sunday morning, we might all see the change we have been looking for and we all would surely know the answer to the question… “why do I go to Church?”
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