It is beneficial and necessary to attend church for many reasons, such as the body of Christ and personal and spiritual growth. | Ashley Jones/THE CHIMES
I spent last summer in a remote series of islands off the west coast of Canada. I was working on a ship for 90 consecutive days doing manual labor, 12 hours a day, seven days a week. No breaks. No days off. No vacations. I literally was not able to go to church for the whole summer. It was physically impossible. I was in the middle of nowhere. Not only was I not able to attend church, but I was surrounded by people who wanted nothing to do with church, and nothing to do with the God I loved.
As I think about last summer, I think of how much I was stretched and challenged spiritually and physically. God placed me there to be a light among a very, very dark place and it was the most exciting thing I had done in awhile — to see the world outside of this little place called Biola — to be in a place on earth that so desperately needs honest, genuine lights of Christ. I strongly sense that the world needs genuine Christians more than ever before — those that are not pretentious, judgmental and mask-wearing. We need people who don’t act like they have it all together. The world needs you — the real you, the you God made you to be, not the mask that you place on yourself.
It was the deprivation of church that taught me about the importance of church in our lives. On the plane ride back to the States, I longed to go to church to see the people there. I wanted to to hug everyone because I remember no more than one or two hugs during the summer, a stark difference from hugging-prone California. I longed to hear a sermon, to hear live worship music, to be in contact with people I would never seek out on my own. I longed to be connected to God’s life-giving church.
Countering excuses students use to skip church
I sense that there is a growing deprivation of church among college students and I lament it in my heart. So many of us wake up Sunday morning and don’t go to church because we’ve “got too much homework” or because we’re “so tired” or because we “just don’t have time.” We’ve all got the same amount of time in the week and there are people much busier than you or I that somehow manage to go to church every week. How do they do it? I think it’s a matter of priorities and time management. Let’s be honest. Church is an hour or two.
How many hours do we waste in a week thumbing through Facebook, conquering a video game, reading mindless blogs and watching pointless videos? We waste precious hours! Can we get it straight and realize that we can go to church if we just stop wasting our lives doing other stuff? Lower church attendance among college students may also have to do with the fact that we just don’t see the importance of church.
Reasons why church is important
Alone, without parents telling us to go to church, we may have lost sight of why it’s important in the first place. You might think that it’s just not worth your time. I disagree. And here are some of the reasons why going to church regularly is so essential.
- Church combats loneliness
Man was not meant to be alone. When I think of my summer in Canada, I think of how alone I felt. There was a definite weight of loneliness much of the time, like the pouring rain and gray clouds that were almost constant throughout the summer. I was with people, yes, but I wa not in a very life-giving and positive community. I learned things from my solitude, like Jesus did when he “often withdrew to lonely places” as it says in Luke 5:16, but I also recognized my thirst for community, my need for other people. Church helps us to stay in this community and combat loneliness.
- Church helps you grow
In order to grow, we need other people, especially people who are outside our age bracket. We need the church: the elderly, the adults, the 20 somethings, the teens, the children and the babies. We can’t go through this life alone, and we certainly cannot expect to learn all we need to by ourselves.God gave us other people for so many good reasons: for enjoyment, for community, for love and also for growth. It is from being in deep relationship with others that helps us grow the most. We learn from each other’s successes and failures, we learn from the weekly sermon and we learn from watching each other’s lives. - Church is a weekly reminder of why you’re here
Church is a wonderful way to refresh ourselves and remind us of our purpose in life. We get together, we worship the God who created us and loves us, we hear the Word preached, and then we go forth and live it. So often, with the whirlwind of activity at school, and even, ironically, in ministry, we forget why we’re doing the things we’re doing. We forget why we’re even here in the first place. We go about life, waking up and living our days like they belong to us, doing the same thing the Israelites did in Genesis: forgetting our Creator. Church helps us remember God and put our lives in context of the greater picture. Church helps us remember why we’re here in the first place.
In no way do I intend these three reasons to be a comprehensive statement of the purpose of church. I am only trying to aid you in getting back into the rhythm of going to church by providing perspective from my own situation.
Thank you for following along in this series of seven articles on sacred space. I hope you resonated with some of the thoughts, and I pray that your life was benefited from them.
Thanks to those of you who responded to me personally and thanks to all of you who took the time to read my little thoughts. My heart is full.
