Why Do We Still "Go to Church"?

 Why Do We - Why do I  - (Still) “go to church”?

Most of us know that over the last 60 years and more, church attendance has been declining in western countries. The latest wrinkle in this trend has been an apparent exacerbation of the phenomenon because of Covid. Many congregations, in an attempt to maintain some sense of fellowship and provide a worship experience for their members and parishioners, began conducting online worship and teaching services. One might say that too many found it this was all they needed, and once church doors reopened, some of them have not gone back.

Many of us in our society grew up attending church. Many of our contemporaries stopped as soon as they left home, something that still happens. So why do I still go?

I would have to begin by saying that I go because I am what is known in our world as a Christian. That S is the short answer. As a follower of Jesus Christ, we believe that his life is the best example to follow. He was a regular attender at the church of his society, known as the synagogue. He also went faithfully to the central church one might say, the temple in Jerusalem. So, we could say if that was good for our leader, that was his practice, it has to be good for us.

I could also look back at my ancestors going back at least 500 years, if not longer. They were leaders in the Anabaptist arm of the Church Reformation that went through Europe at that time. Their faithfulness, church membership, and attendance at a church has continued to my day and I continue the practice. Somewhat analogous to the argument I made in the previous paragraph, I could say that if this was something that was good for them, who am I to say that it is not good for me? Do I think I am more intelligent and knowledgable than all of those ancestors?

At the same time, I must clarify that I do not attend church simply because my parents, my grandparents, and these many generations of ancestors did. However, again, just as with Jesus, their lives were by and large good examples and if church membership and attendance and involvement was good for them for half a millennium, why do so many of our contemporaries seemingly so easily throw away this heritage?

A famous Canadian author, Pierre Berton, wrote a book in the 1960s called The Comfortable Pew. As the subtitle suggests, “A Critical Look at Christianity and the Religious Establishment in the New Age” It was a critique of contemporary Christianity. The writer saw it as a comforting tradition but one that was lacking in really addressing the issues that were crying for attention in society. There were times in my life when I was not satisfied with "church". There was a time when I was involved with teaching a youth class, but then sometimes I would skip out for the worship service because it did not seem to meet my needs. There were other times when I judged that a congregation was not meeting my needs and I changed congregations.

Looking back at that now I see how individualistic and perhaps self-centred that was. It reminds me of a book I once read about a noviciate in the Catholic Church who made similar complaints about his church as I would have made about mine. His senior's response was simply something along the lines of, “This church and it's rituals are not yours.” I could leave that for you to interpret, but to me it seems to say that church is something beyond us, it has a life of its own regardless of our individual feelings and attitudes towards it.

However, by the time we got to the 80s or 90s, I wrote a piece that was published by the Canadian Mennonite called The Comfortable Pew. By this time I had come to terms with church membership, attendance and involvement and actually felt, for the most part, that church attendance was comfortable. For me, it was a place of sanctuary, which is what we often call the hall of a church. It was a place to retreat from the world to focus on things other than our everyday lives. The centre of this of course was focussing on worshipping our God. It was also in some ways, as some describe it, for renewal and “recharging (our spiritual) batteries". Thirdly, it was a place to reconnect with those whom we sometimes referred to as brothers and sisters, fellow church members and adherents who had become friends.

This is definitely not to say that I am so comfortable with church that I find no fault with it. There are certainly problems when church becomes too institutional. It is also not good when church becomes too much of a closed shop. There can be issues with power struggles. It is after all, on one level, a human organization. However, if that is all it is, it is only a religious institution, in the most negative and sorry sense of that description.

A “church”, “congregation”, regardless of size and membership and where it meets, is really an organic part, in a metaphorical but real spiritually mystical sense as well, of the universal Church, the earthly body of our Lord, Jesus Christ. As such, if we are committed followers of the Head, this Lord, I believe we, like him, will continue to attend, take part and be involved, regardless of the imperfections. The positive side of that is, that as imperfect as we are, if we are really believers, we are still a part of God’s family and will remain so forever, with an even better future, as he has promised. Of course, our task while we are still on this earth, is to try and bring about as much as we can the kind of world, kingdom some would say, that we understand God wants for the world he created. As we knew all too well, this is a task which Jesus commissioned us to before he left this earth after his resurrection, and so we obediently and faithfully carry-on.

Finally, we know from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles that Jesus'’ followers, eventually named Christians, began to meet regularly for worship, prayer, fasting and teaching. They started something that was valuable to them. If it is not valuable to us, we need to examine ourselves and our relationship with Jesus to see why. Then too, there is that admonishment in Hebrews 10:25 “not to neglect the assembly of the saints”, i.e., not to slack off in meeting fellow Christians for reasons already described.