Why Go To Church?

Recently, I have been reading a blog where the writer lists many reasons why people of her generation have given up on church. I will admit that many of her "excuses" are valid and I do understand where she and her peers are coming from.  I am obviously from a different era than this young lady and am well aware that unless you can walk a mile in someone else's shoes you can't know everything that they are dealing with in their life. I can see, but not totally comprehend the pressure and distractions that cause so many of today's youth to choose "sleeping in and making blueberry pancakes for breakfast" over waking up early and sitting through a "boring" church service.

However, I would like to share how I have seen church as a positive thing and encourage these energetic twenty-somethings not to give up on the church. Here are some reflections from my personal experience and my family's.

High on this list, is the Bible teaching that is received. From Sunday School classes to sermons, we learn things in a way that is difficult if not impossible to match in a home setting through books and self-study. The ultimate goal for all of us who are Christian parents is for our children to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  This is definitely not achieved solely through church, however, I believe church should complement what we as parents are teaching our children at home. There is a lot more that could be said about faith and Christianity but for this Blog I am going to focus on the church and how it has affected me.

I think often what people fail to see is that in a church community we ALL need each other. Although it is important to have friends your own age who are going through the same things in their lives, I feel we often overlook the rich reward we receive from interacting with people of all ages. I know that some churches don't have a big diversity in ages but I honestly think they miss out on this golden opportunity. Let me give some examples:

• When I had my first child, every Sunday an elderly lady would come up to me after the service, take a peek at Shawn and say with a big smile, "My, he's growing, isn't he?"  This was actually kind of humorous because all of us with infants knew that she would say this to us every week.  But you know what?  We also learned that in her life Anna had had one stillborn child and one that died of pneumonia at a young age.  Her eyes still misted over whenever she talked about it. She loved children and made it a point to talk to us young mothers. Although we laughed, we enjoyed it and I always think of this lady fondly.
• Another thing I noticed is that even though children and youth will roll their eyes about the oldies in the congregation, they secretly love them a lot. Once when we were talking about a certain older woman in our congregation, my daughter made the comment, "I just love her!"  Another time, I posted a picture on my Facebook of an older gentleman in our congregation and an 18 year old commented "He is the coolest guy!" In what other setting, would our children get to interact with older people?  Sure, they may have their grandparents but they are relatives and it isn't the same thing.
• In our congregation we have a woman in her seventies that loves to entertain and host dinner parties.  This winter she invited 10 or 12 of us at a time for a breakfast at her house. We have a young adult class of approximately 10 who attend our church regularly.  Joanne wondered if they would appreciate an invitation for a breakfast.  She was a little hesitant because she thought they probably wouldn't want to get out of bed early and would they really want to come to her house?  Well, she invited them and every single one of them accepted.  They were delighted and even though it meant giving up some sleeping time on a Saturday morning, I heard one of them make the comment, "Who wouldn't want to go to Joanne's house to eat?"
• The older people love the youth and children.  Over the years, my children were involved in many activities from sports, Bible quizzing, youth group, mission trips, etc.  One thing they could always count on was the support of the entire congregation in everything they did, from buying whatever they were selling to fund a mission trip or activity, to showing up at music concerts and Bible quizzing tournaments. If they had a special activity or a trip that they had gone on, someone from the congregation would always ask them about it  and want them to share some of the details with them.  Where else do you get that kind of support outside of family?

Honestly, there were plenty of times when I didn't feel like going to church either. When the children were small, I didn't get anything out of the message. When we were struggling to find a new pastor, I didn't feel like dealing with it and it would have been a lot easier to just stay home. But we persevered together. By not just focusing on what I needed from church, I was able to instead look for areas that I could give to the church.  I served on committees. I taught Sunday School. I coached Bible quizzing. By giving of myself this way I often ended up receiving a blessing in ways that I never thought would be possible.

No, our congregation is DEFINITELY not perfect.  We make mistakes. We disagree. We have lost dissatisfied members who chose to find another church. Most of all, we have lost vibrant youth who went away to college and/or got married and never came back. Some of them chose to never go to church again, and some of them have found another church that fits their needs and their families. Obviously, some of them never came back to the area, so it wasn't even an option for them to come back to our church.

I am not condemning any of these young people. Two of my own children fall in this category. Mostly, I just feel sadness that this happens.  What could we do differently?  How can we make it so these gifted adults want to be a part of a church?  The church desperately needs them.  We need a younger generation to rise up and love the church and want it to thrive. We need their talents, their passion, their enthusiasm.  Some of us older ones are tired and we need the energy of youth to sustain us.

I think youth assume that the older generation is not willing to change the way they view church and would not be open to new ideas that young people bring to the congregation.  I strongly disagree with that.  There will always be a few that feel that way, but as a majority, most of us are willing to accept change, especially if we see that a young person is passionate for Jesus and the church. We WANT to work with the next generation and we WANT them to be involved in the church. Many things get lost from one generation to the next.  Will  my grandchildren and great-grandchildren even know what church is? I certainly hope and pray that they will.