Church!

Today, I am weary of people.  

I am weary of myself!  

I am worn out not just by the political dialogue, I am irritated by my tenants and I am burdened by discord and I am discouraged by my own impatient responses to my husband and children.

I am so glad that Sunday is right around the corner.  

Sunday School and corporate worship and the joy of serving.

There is no substitute for being in the house of the Lord with His people. 

I have supportive friends and a loving family,  but the worship and fellowship with my fellow believers re-sets me each week.  I do not find even the needed, warm, instructive and accepting environment of a small group to be a replacement for weekly church.

Attending church isn't a Magic Pill.  It's not even the heart of my Christianity- Christ is- and I have everything I need - My Bible, the Word of God- to know Him, love Him and serve Him, even if I never entered a church.  Yes, it is true, as a rebellious teenager will sometimes shout:  "I don't have to go to church to be a Christian!"

Although it is community it is much more than community.   Although it is instruction, opportunities for service, prayer, and praising God with worship songs, it is much more than these things.  These things result in my heart feeling loved.  These things result in my actions, thoughts, and words being challenged.  These things result in conviction and change.  These things result in motivating me to dig deeper into the Word, to love better, to serve differently.  Regular church attendance helps me sync my life with what God wants for it.  It creates a weekly "re-set".

I am 41 years old and I have likely attended 4,250 church services, plus approximately 2,000 Sunday School classes.  Do I just have this habit because it is what I grew up doing, what I know to do?  My answer is that I could not be more thankful that I grew up attending church and praise the Lord there has not been one part of my adult life when I have decided that I don't need it.  

Many Millennials have opted out of regular church attendance, citing hypocrisy in the church, in part. They feel that church is not relevant to them, not necessary in their spiritual growth.

Now I could attend church weekly and have a heart of stone.  "Being in a barn doesn't make you a cow."  Like all things, it is a matter of the heart.  I am not suggesting rigidity or church attendance as a measuring tool for godliness.  

But I will not disparage the humble habit of weekly church attendance.  I will not regard as inferior the small, basement Sunday School classrooms, smelling of vanilla wafers, with middle-aged women who open The Word and use flannelgraph boards.  I will not lift up or put down the Biblically-sound megachurches with their concert-quality musicians and their cafes and catchy slogans.  

These are the rooms where my faith was built and my mind and heart have been fed.  And even after a difficult choice to change churches and even when I don't quite feel settled yet- even after several years- I feel loved and I am fed and I love attending my church!  It is my weekly re-set.  It is noticeable when we forsake the assembly and it is immeasurable when we don't.