Why Go to Church? It’s About More Than Attendance
This past Sunday, my nephew had a Pony Football game.
Fortunately, the game didn’t start until 1:00 in the afternoon, so I was able to go to church that morning and then head to the football field afterward. But as I sat there watching the game, I thought about something that has changed considerably during my lifetime.
There was a time when almost nobody scheduled activities on Sunday morning because there was an assumption that people went to church. Whether everyone actually attended is another question, but Sunday morning was generally left alone.
That expectation doesn’t exist anymore.
The Pony Football League scheduled games on Sunday, which meant some families had to make a choice. If a game had been scheduled at 10:30 that morning, would they go to church or go to the football game?
Two Religions in Texas
Having grown up in Texas, I know that’s a dangerous question. In Texas, it sometimes seems like everybody has two religions—the religion of their faith and football—and if the two end up competing for the same time slot, I’m not sure I’d bet against football.
Of course, it isn’t only football.
You wake up on Sunday morning and discover it’s going to be a beautiful day, so maybe this would be a great day to go kayaking. In the winter, fresh snow might make it a perfect day for skiing or snowboarding. Maybe it’s been an exhausting week, and when the alarm goes off Sunday morning, another couple of hours of sleep sounds awfully good.
Besides, you can always watch the service on YouTube later.
Maybe you will.
Maybe you won’t.
None of those things—football, kayaking, skiing, sleeping—is inherently wrong. The question isn’t whether Christians are allowed to enjoy a Sunday afternoon.
The question is what happens when gathering with the church becomes one option among many competing for the same space on our calendar.
Somewhere along the way, I think many of us began treating church like an elective instead of a required subject.
Why Go to Church?
That’s actually a reasonable question.
If I can listen to a good sermon online, worship along with Christian music in my truck and read my Bible at home, why do I need to get dressed on Sunday morning and drive somewhere to do things I can seemingly do by myself?
The writer of Hebrews gives us part of the answer:
“And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.” — Hebrews 10:24–25 (CSB)
We often quote verse 25 when talking about church attendance, particularly the part about “not neglecting to gather together.”
That’s certainly there, and we shouldn’t ignore it. Christians are instructed to gather with other believers.
But look at what surrounds that instruction.
- We’re supposed to consider one another.
- We’re supposed to encourage each other toward love and good works.
- We’re supposed to encourage one another as we follow Christ.
That requires something more than occupying a seat for an hour on Sunday morning.
It requires other people.
Congratulations, You Earned Your Church Sticker
Maybe we’ve solved the first problem.
Sunday morning comes, and we decide we’re going to church. Unless we’re sick, traveling or have some legitimate reason we can’t attend, the decision has already been made.
That’s a good thing.
But we can still miss the point.
We arrive, find our usual seat and say hello to a few people. When the music starts, we stand and sing. We manage to stay awake through the sermon, which depending on who’s preaching may occasionally require a little extra spiritual discipline.
Then the final prayer ends, we head for the door and mentally check church off our list.
Done.
If we had a sticker chart on the refrigerator, we’d get our “I Attended Church This Week” sticker.
I’ll take mine in gold, please.
There’s nothing wrong with attendance. In fact, you can’t participate very effectively if you aren’t there.
But attendance is the beginning, not the goal.
When we look at the church described in the New Testament, we find something much richer than people gathering once a week to watch a service.
Look at the Church in Acts
After Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, about three thousand people believed the gospel and were baptized.
Imagine adding three thousand new people to your church in one day. Most churches would spend the next six months trying to figure out where everybody was going to park.
But Luke tells us what these new believers did next:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” — Acts 2:42 (CSB)
Notice the word devoted.
These believers weren’t casually fitting church into their schedules when nothing better came along. Their new relationship with Christ changed how they lived, and part of that change involved their relationship with other believers.
- They learned together.
- They prayed together.
- They ate together.
- They worshiped together.
- They helped one another.
Acts tells us that believers who had possessions were willing to share with those who had needs. They met in the temple and in one another’s homes. They enjoyed meals together and praised God together.
This wasn’t simply a Sunday service.
It was a community.
That’s an important distinction when we ask why we should go to church.
God didn’t design the church merely to give us somewhere to hear a sermon. He placed believers together so we could help one another follow Jesus.
You Can’t Do “One Another” by Yourself
Once you start looking for it, you’ll notice something throughout the New Testament.
The phrase “one another” shows up over and over.
Paul tells us to “love one another deeply as brothers and sisters” in Romans 12:10.
Galatians 6:2 tells us:
“Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (CSB)
First Thessalonians 5:11 tells believers to “encourage one another and build each other up.”
Colossians 3:13 tells us to bear with one another and forgive one another.
James 5:16 tells us to pray for one another.
Those instructions assume something about the Christian life that our culture makes increasingly difficult for us to understand.
We need relationships with other Christians.
I can’t carry your burden if I don’t know you have one. You can’t encourage me when I’m struggling if our entire relationship consists of sitting fifteen feet apart for an hour every Sunday.
We can’t pray for one another if we never share what’s happening in our lives. We can’t build one another up if we don’t know each other.
That’s one reason church participation matters.
You need people who know more about you than where you normally sit on Sunday morning.
But I Can Watch Church on YouTube
I want to be careful here because I’m thankful churches can stream their services.
For someone who is sick, homebound or traveling, being able to watch the service online can be a tremendous blessing. There are people who genuinely cannot physically gather with their church, and technology allows them to remain connected in ways that weren’t possible not very many years ago.
But watching church online and participating in a church aren’t the same thing.
You can hear the sermon on YouTube. You can listen to the music and even sing along if you’re willing to risk frightening the neighbors.
What you can’t do very well through a screen is notice that the person three rows behind you looks like they’ve had a terrible week.
- You can’t stop them after the service and ask, “Are you okay?”
- You can’t put your hand on someone’s shoulder and pray with them.
- You can’t teach a child in Sunday School, help an elderly member get to their car, greet the visitor who looks completely lost or discover that a family in your church needs some help.
There’s another side to this too.
Nobody can do those things for you if you’re never there.
When life gets difficult, it’s easy to discover that the relationships we treated as optional were relationships we desperately needed.
God didn’t create us to follow Jesus alone.
Church Isn’t Something We Consume
I think part of our problem is that we’ve learned to approach almost everything as consumers.
We choose restaurants based on whether we like the food and service. We choose entertainment based on what interests us. If we don’t like one streaming service anymore, we cancel it and subscribe to another one.
Without realizing it, we can bring the same mindset into church.
Did I like the music?
Was the sermon interesting?
Were the children’s programs good?
Did somebody greet me?
Did I get something out of it?
Those aren’t always bad questions. Churches should care about teaching God’s Word well. We should care about children. We should welcome people warmly, and we’ll talk later in this series about how to determine whether you’re in a biblically faithful church.
But there’s another question mature Christians need to learn to ask:
What did I bring?
Maybe someone needed your encouragement this morning.
Perhaps a child needed you to teach their Sunday School class.
Someone may have needed you to pray with them.
Maybe the church needed your ability to fix something, organize something, cook something or simply show up when there was work to be done.
You may not think you have much to offer.
Paul would disagree.
You Are Part of the Body
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as a body.
A body has different parts, and those parts don’t all perform the same function. An eye isn’t a hand. An ear isn’t a foot. Yet every part has a purpose, and the body doesn’t function properly when parts are missing.
Paul writes:
“Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.” — 1 Corinthians 12:27 (CSB)
I think that’s a much better picture of church than the one many of us carry around in our heads.
Church isn’t a building where religious activities happen.
It’s people.
If you belong to Christ, you aren’t supposed to spend your Christian life sitting in the audience watching a handful of other Christians do ministry.
You’re part of the body.
That doesn’t mean everybody needs to teach Sunday School, sing in the choir or become a deacon. God hasn’t gifted everyone to do those things.
Participation may look very different from one person to another.
For one person, it might mean teaching. For another, it might mean quietly encouraging people who are struggling. Someone else may be good at working with their hands, preparing meals, visiting people, praying faithfully or making new people feel welcome.
The point isn’t that everybody needs a church title.
It’s that everybody has a place.
What Does Participation Actually Look Like?
If you’ve mostly thought about church in terms of attendance, don’t turn this into another complicated spiritual program you have to master.
Start simply.
Show up consistently enough that people actually know you.
When you arrive, look around instead of heading straight to your seat. Talk to someone you don’t normally talk to. If someone seems discouraged, ask how they’re doing and stay long enough to hear the real answer.
Find somewhere to serve that fits the abilities and opportunities God has given you.
Spend enough time with other Christians that relationships begin to develop beyond Sunday morning. That might happen through Sunday School, a small group, a Bible study, a ministry team or simply sharing a meal with another family.
When someone asks for prayer, pray for them—and then remember to ask them later what happened.
If there’s a need you can meet, help.
None of those things is particularly complicated.
In fact, that’s part of what I love about the description of the church in Acts. There wasn’t anything flashy about it. Ordinary Christians were learning God’s Word, praying, sharing meals, helping people and living their faith together.
They were participating in each other’s lives.
We still need that.
Maybe Sunday Morning Isn’t the Real Question
So, why go to church?
Certainly because Scripture tells believers not to neglect gathering together. I don’t think we should apologize for saying that. Gathering with the church should be a settled priority in the life of a Christian rather than something we do only when nothing else gets scheduled.
But if that’s where we stop, we’ve missed much of what God intended.
Next Sunday morning, the question shouldn’t only be, “Am I going to church?”
Maybe ask something else while you’re getting ready:
“How am I going to participate in the church God has given me?”
Maybe you’ll encourage someone.
Maybe you’ll learn something from God’s Word that changes how you live during the week.
Perhaps you’ll pray with someone who’s hurting, serve somewhere you’re needed or simply spend time building a relationship with another believer.
You might even discover that someone there needs exactly what God has equipped you to give.
And if you keep showing up—not merely attending but becoming part of people’s lives—you’ll probably discover something else too.
You need those people just as much as they need you.
That’s where we’re going next.
Keep Going With the Start at Home Series
This post is part of our Start at Home series, where we’re looking at what Scripture says about changing a broken society by starting with the responsibilities God has already placed in front of us.
We’ve spent the last several posts talking about the family. Now we’re turning our attention to another institution God established—the church. Over the next several posts, we’ll look at what it means to belong to a church, why we need one another, how God expects us to serve, what to do when the church hurts us and how to know whether we’re part of a biblically faithful church.
If you’ve missed any of the earlier posts, you can find the entire series here:
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We also continue these conversations on the Disciple Blueprint Podcast. Each post in the Start at Home series is accompanied by podcast episodes that explore these biblical principles in a practical, conversational way.
You can listen on most popular podcast platforms or find all of our episodes here:
Listen to the Disciple Blueprint Podcast
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If this post challenged the way you think about church, consider sharing it with someone else. Church was never meant to be something Christians simply attend once a week. God designed us to follow Christ together.
