Acts 20.28– “Take heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock that the Holy Spirit has made you overseers 0f— feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.’
Not long ago three men of eminence set forth their views of the subject of church going. These views are interesting if only because they are so widely different. The author of The Return to Religion says he goes to church because it is good for a person to do what he doesn’t like. The second writer says, in a magazine article, that he stays away from church because the church has nothing vital, gripping, or enlightening to say. He feels like the teaching of Jesus was given too long ago. This writer fails to grasp the elementary facts of true religion. It is and must be timeless. If he had more imagination he would find every church spire gripping, the reading of the Book of books enlightening. Moreover, he is hardly in a position to improve the church whose deficiencies he laments if he is withdrawn from all contact with it.
The third writer goes to church and unlike the first one, he enjoys going to church, it is not a necessary burden, it is a blessing, and he gets a lot out of it. He says he gets perspective, reverence, and encouragement in goodness. Almost all reasons or excuses for staying away from church resolve themselves into these three—- some people has little affinity for religion, some dislike putting themselves in the way of a moral overhauling, many are misled by the idea getting something for nothing. But by and large we get what we bring with us to church. 999 out of every 1,000 non-churchgoers would say— ‘I know and I want the will of Jesus to prevail in my life, and yet they stay away from the very institution whereby Jesus might prevail in their lives— the church of the living God. The will of God will be done when Christians love and live as God would have them love and live.
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