{"id":94,"date":"2012-02-19T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/02\/why-i-dont-go-to-church\/"},"modified":"2012-02-19T16:37:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T16:37:00","slug":"why-i-dont-go-to-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/02\/why-i-dont-go-to-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Why I Don&#8217;t Go to Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-SvU3fkv16rQ\/T0FrPj31CAI\/AAAAAAAAGk4\/dQSNGhb7zdg\/s1600\/Gods-Presence.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-SvU3fkv16rQ\/T0FrPj31CAI\/AAAAAAAAGk4\/dQSNGhb7zdg\/s320\/Gods-Presence.jpg\" width=\"240\"><\/a><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to meet my friends.<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to sing the songs I like<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church so the neighbors think I\u2019m respectable<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to increase my self esteem<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to learn more about the Bible<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to drink coffee and eat donuts<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to have an emotional experience<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to plan how to change the world<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to \u201chave fellowship\u201d<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to learn more about God and Jesus<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to be a good example to my children<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to please my mother<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to avoid hell<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to achieve heaven<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to cheer on my team<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to feel spiritual<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to be better than everyone else<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to boost moral<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t go to church to launch an agenda<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>I don\u2019t make the church. The church makes me.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Look not on my sins, but the faith of your church.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The church is the four men who took paralyzed me on a long journey to meet the Lord.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The church is the four men who took apart the roof\u2013everything that separated me from my Lord and God.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The church is the four men who brought me\u2013 paralyzed by sin\u2013 and lowered me down to where I ought to be\u2013at the feet of Jesus.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The church is the four men who brought me to receive forgiveness and healing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The church is my mother. Within the church I was spiritually conceived, gestated, brought to life, given birth, nursed and nurtured.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>It\u2019s simple:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Church is the Body of Christ and so\u00a0I go to church so that the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ might preserve my body and soul unto everlasting life.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t go to church to meet my friends. I don\u2019t go to church to sing the songs I like I don\u2019t go to church so the neighbors think I\u2019m respectable I don\u2019t go to church to increase my self esteem I don\u2019t go to church to learn more about the Bible I don\u2019t go [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why I Don&#039;t Go to Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don&#039;t go to church to meet my friends.I don&#039;t go to church to sing the songs I likeI don&#039;t go to church so the neighbors think I&#039;m respectableI don&#039;t go\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/02\/why-i-dont-go-to-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Don&#039;t Go to Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don&#039;t go to church to meet my friends.I don&#039;t go to church to sing the songs I likeI don&#039;t go to church so the neighbors think I&#039;m respectableI don&#039;t go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/02\/why-i-dont-go-to-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. 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