Why Bother With Church

I love to spend time out in the garage. It can be both relaxing and fulfilling. No wonder my father-in-law calls his garage the men’s crisis center.
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I was recently able to get an old John Deere B to work on, and it is small enough to fit in the garage and still allow room to work on the lawn mower. It has given me further incentive to spend my evenings in the garage.
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This actually reminds me of a statement that I have heard quite a bit lately: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.” I am obviously not a car, but I fear many church goers may not be real Christians either. God knows.
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So if going to church doesn’t make one a Christian, why bother going? Some may ask, “If I don’t get anything for myself from church, why bother?” Such attitudes have led to people staying home, and churches attempting to cater to man’s desires through entertainment.
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What man and churches are missing in all this is the glory of God. Is Christianity all about us, or is it about HIM? As I realize that God loved me so much that Christ died to pay for my sins, I want to honor Him. I want to know more about Him so that I can tell others about how wonderful my Lord and Savior is. I want to know what He expects of me. I want to be equipped for service to Him.
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We should desire to go to church so that we can learn from God’s Word and be equipped by it. That is what a pastor of a church is supposed to be doing for the saints as he teaches. Ephesians 4:11-16 says, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
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Notice that we are to be taught so that we are not sidetracked by every doctrine or teaching that comes along- so that we understand God’s teaching and are equipped by it. If you really are a Christian and are not in a church that is doing that, find one. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)