Obsessed with Church

[good samaritan]

Have you ever considered the people you could of helped when opting out of church. I do think the service style set up of our gatherings can become ritualistic and empty, but they don't have to be. You get what you put in to it. If you come to church to have the Lord to knock you out of the pew and into some supernatural experience then it probably will never happen. If you come to rejoice with others about the God of your salvation, to be taught and admonished from the scripture, to receive christian fellowship with other believers on the same journey as yourself then that would be reason for me to go.

I was forced to go to church as a child by a parent who had very little fruit of the Spirit. I could tell some horror stories, but I feel it would not edify anything. I backslid as a young teen with a chip on my shoulder that everyone in church are hypocrites. I felt like you, that a person is o.k. all by there self. The only thing is it didn't go that well for me. I filled the place of church fellowship with friends who were not christian. Gradually things got worse. I went from being active in the church to drinking and doing drugs with friends. Needless to say I almost lost my life spiritually and naturally.

I have come to realize that church attendance is necessary not because of an attendance record, but because it is who I am. I am a part of the church. I am fastened together with other imperfect humans like myself that receive encouragement and strength through our fellowship and exhortation every time I go. I even get some strengthening on this forum by debating and reading debates. The dialogue we have here will strengthen our walk with God if we will let it. We should have dialogue in the church as well.

A thing I do see in the church is there is hypocrisy in it many times. We draw out a cookie cutter walk with God that everyone must be. Many times people conform to things without personal convictions of their own. They become part of the machine, but their fear of ever standing out causes them to not function as a part of the body that they are designed to be in the body.

We should never live our lives out of traditions of men, but we should develop our own personal convictions that are built upon the scriptures and the Holy Ghost's direction. The question of when is it o.k. to miss church is not a black and white answer for me. It is a salvation issue for a person to loose their desire for body connection. Shall the hand say to the foot I have no need of you. It doesn't work that way. If you are saying that you have all the ingredients of the church rolled up into one person yourself you are incorrect. We need one another.

Give a local church fellowship another chance I will be praying for you Allstate. I don't doubt your sincerity or your love for God. You obviously have given this subject much thought and that shows that it is important to you. Part of the church is missing when you withhold your part from its fellowship.