7 Reasons Why Attending Church Important

Perhaps you are wondering why you should bother attending a local church. After all, you can stream sermons and hang out with Christian friends outside of a Sunday morning gathering. Perhaps you are bored with the Sunday morning worship, or you are too busy, or perhaps you've been turned off by some of the showmanship in those services. Whatever your reasons, there's still something good about the corporate worship gatherings of a local church.

That said, let me clarify one thing first. Church is more than a place you go. It's not technically a building and it's not really an event. The Church, as the Bible understands it, is a collection of people who follow Jesus and worship the God of the Bible. Every Christian is a member of the universal church - like it or not. The local church is just a collection and representation of the universal church. Each local church is a small localized version of the universal church.

If you have drifted from church or are contemplating it, you need to know God's will is for you to be part of a local body of believers. I read reddit threads that are filled with a number of people who just don't see the need or big deal with not being part of a local church. I don't want to be harsh but it's a sign of our own individualism. However, we also see that so many Christians (like the rest of society) are lonely and isolated. And, it does impact their faith. But, there are a number of reasons to consider being part of a local church - one of them being that you grow more in community. I'd even recommend committing to joining a church in order to fulfill God's will for your life.

Before I get ahead of myself, here's a list of reasons why you should attend and participate in the life of a local church:

1. The Bible calls us to gathering with a local church

Don't blow past this reason. Consider how the New Testament assumes a Christianity that is within the context of a local church. The most often-cited passage on church attendance is Hebrews 10:24–25: "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

This is a clear call that we shouldn't ignore. The rest of the New Testament implies it. The Bible is filled with mentions of "one another" for the church. Commands to love one another, bear one another's burdens, encourage one another, confess to one another, forgive one another, honor one another. You quickly begin to see that you cannot fulfill these commands if you are not regularly participating in a local body of believers.

At One Hope, our goal is to be focused on forming a community that loves God and loves people. We don't want to be a big church because you lose the personal connection. We want to plant more churches instead of amassing one giant church. That's not a cheap shot at big churches. There are lots of good big churches. We just believe God has called us to something different. We long to see the rise of local churches where the people know and belong to one another as they form a community around Christ.

2. You find and experience beauty in a local church

I used to go to a church and always felt like the skeptic. I always reminded people how the church wasn't a building. I would balk anytime they wanted to spend money on the building. I also rolled my eyes at cheesy church events like the Christmas play and the various activities, such as men's softball.

Now, there are all sorts of visions about how a church should operate. That's not my point here. What I began to see in all of those things was beauty. Over the years, I saw those kids in the Christmas play turn into young adults who got married in that church. I saw men bond over dugout conversations. I saw life being lived year after year in that body. I saw people married and burried in that church. It was filled with stories of joy and deep sorrow. I have never found anything so beautiful on earth as a community of people who love God and share that love with one another and the world around them. Even now, it brings tears to my eyes.

If you find a good local church and invest your life for the long haul - I believe you will find beauty in it too.

3. You grow more in a local church

It is easy to believe, especially in seasons of spiritual health, that you can maintain your faith on your own. Most people who drift into irregular attendance don't intend to drift at all. They simply begin making exceptions: a busy weekend, a tired morning, but then absence slowly becomes the new normal.

Gathering as a church is good for your own soul. Jesus designed it that way. If you don't gather with the church, it hurts you spiritually. Regular attendance shapes you in ways you don't always notice in the moment. Sitting under the consistent preaching of God's Word, week after week, deposits truth that sustains you in crisis. Participating in congregational singing recalibrates your affections. Receiving the Lord's Supper together with the body roots your faith in that means of grace.

When people treat faith as important but stop attending a local church, their Christian convictions are not maintained. Their beliefs and convictions begin to change and often reflect more of the culture than the church. Church attendance and spiritual vitality are not identical, but they are correlated.

I see this all the time in people who visit our church. I have people who start visiting after being away from a local church for a long time. They don't come back with vibrant faith, but one that is often limping. People start attending church after a long time away and they don't come in with vibrant spiritual lives. They often come limping back in. I don't mean that as critical or judgmental. It's an observation and perhaps a warning as a pastor to avoid the danger of not being a member of a local church.

I know not all churches are perfect and many experience hurt. However, it's important to prioritize local church attendance. Let God lead you to the right place. At One Hope, we practice church membership. This means we identify people as members and join together via a church covenant. We remind each member of a church of what it means to belong to our local body so that we can all strive together for church health.

4. You have a role to play in the church

In our consumeristic age, we tend to think of church attendance as primarily about what we receive: good preaching, worship, community. Those aren't the only things to be looking at when searching for a church. When those things feel lacking, or when convenience pulls another direction, it becomes easy to stay home. But, when you are part of a family, you are wanted and have a role to play. You belong but you also contribute to the good of your family. The same with the church.

Consider what happens when you are absent. The person sitting behind you who was hoping someone would notice them doesn't have you present to notice them. The new attendee who needed to see a familiar face and feel welcomed was missed because you weren't there. The worship team that needed your voice to feel like a congregation rather than a performance missed you. The small group that depended on your question to open a real conversation didn't have you, so the meeting went a different direction. Can you see all the ways that God works through you in small ways in a local church?

Peter writes, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace" (1 Peter 4:10). Every believer has been given something to offer the body. Spiritual gifts aren't just for you, they are to serve and benefit and build up the local church body. When you are absent, those gifts are withheld from the people who needed them that week.

Your faithfulness in attendance also models something to the people watching you. Whether that's children in your household, a newer believer you've been discipling, or a neighbor curious about your faith. Parents who attend regularly transmit something to the next generation that cannot be replaced by good intentions.

5. Regular attendance keeps you accountable

Christianity was never designed to be practiced alone. The community of believers is meant to be a place of mutual accountability, not in a legalistic sense, but in the way that people who love each other keep each other honest.

Again, think of all the descriptions of this in the Bible.

1. James 5:16 instructs believers to confess their sins to one another and pray for each other.

2. Galatians 6:1–2 calls those who are spiritual to gently restore those caught in transgression, bearing one another's burdens.

3. Hebrews 3:13 calls for daily exhortation, that "none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

These are not optional features of the Christian life. They require you being around others. Irregular attendance makes this kind of accountability nearly impossible. When a pastor or fellow church member doesn't see you for several weeks, they don't know that you're struggling. When you're not embedded in a community, there's no one positioned to ask the hard question or speak the honest word at the moment it's needed most. For that matter, that's another reason we need more churches. We need more local churches that form communities where people can be known and seen each week.

The New Testament word for the community we all want is koinonia. This word is usually translated as "fellowship." It describes deep community life that many of us want, but are also afraid to find. Because good community is beautiful and yet scary. It's overlapping life, sacrificial love, and common care. At One Hope, these are many of the values we want to see in our congregation.

6. Regular attendance is good for you

The spiritual reasons for attending church are enough, but it's also worth noting that research also is starting to confirm a number of other side benefits to attending church.

Studies show that weekly religious service attendance is can lead to lower mortality risk, reduced rates of depression, better heart health, stronger marriages, and greater overall happiness and purpose in life. In general, people who regularly attend a Sunday weekly worship service are happier, healthier, and less likely to get sick.

None of this should lead us to attend church primarily for health reasons. The church is not a wellness program. But these findings do suggest that there is blessing and benefit even as a side item for those who gather together.

7. The gathered church is a signpost to the world

When Christians gather faithfully and love each other visibly, something is communicated to the watching world. We form an organism of love, community, and beauty. Our love for God and for others is inviting and others take notice.

Jesus said it plainly: "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). One of the greatest witnesses to the world is the gathered church. When a church is the kind of place where people from different backgrounds and generations and economic situations share a commone faith and love for God, it testifies to something that cannot be explained merely by sociological forces.

Acts 2 records that the early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer and that "the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." Their communal life was evangelistically magnetic.

When attendance is thin and inconsistent, that witness is diminished. The world sees a building people occasionally enter when it's convenient. When attendance is faithful and community is deep, the world sees something they also want to experience for themselves.

One note of caution

This is not an argument for attending a church you've never examined or that doesn't preach the gospel. It's important that you carefully pray and examine churches to ensure they are a healthy church. Even here in the Fort Mill and Tega Cay area, there are a number of good churches and a number of churches that I would not recommend. If you choose an unhealthy church, it could hurt you more than it could help you.

If you are in the area and need help finding a church, come visit us. You may find we are the right church, or I'd be happy to point you to other churches in the area that might be best for you.

Looking for a church in the Fort Mill area?

We are a community church were people are known and loved. Come check us out.

Learn More