WHY ATTEND CHURCH?

This past summer while driving across the central U.S. we stopped for the night at a motel that offered free copies of the Marysville, KS Advocate. Having a newspaper to read was a special treat for us as we had spent the five weeks we were at our place in Colorado without television or a newspaper. You can understand why we felt somewhat out of touch with what was going on in the country and welcomed the chance to read a newspaper.

True, we had some radio reception at the ranch, but we were 50 miles from Colorado Springs and about the same distance from Canon City. The few stations we received were mostly music stations and they only did a five-minute news wrap up at the top of each hour. After that, it was all music – mostly country music.

We eagerly took the Advocate back to our room and started reading it. We learned, among other things, that the cattle disease anaplasmosis had been reported in the region. That, we surmised, was news to local cattle farmers. We also learned that Boos Pumpkin Patch would be open that coming Saturday.

One article that caught my eye was the one by Jerry Zanker, pastor of the Marysville First Christian Church. The title was “Why go to church?” Being a doubting Thomas, I wondered what answer he would give, so I read the article.

Pastor Zanker started right off by feeding my doubt with the statement that “79 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians but only 20 percent attend worship service regularly.” While I never had definite figures to support my cynicism about religious folks, I already knew that a great many so-called Christians were such in name only. Not only did they not attend church services regularly, the rest of their daily lives belied the notion that they were serious Christians.

Indeed, by the simple, unscientific practice of observing people, I learned that being a Christian for many folks was something akin to being a Democrat or Republican or Rotarian or Chamber of Commerce member. Whatever the label, whatever the organization, it was important to these people to belong to something. They desperately needed to be identified with an organization or cause – not so much that belonging required them to change the way their live but enough for them to enjoy the social aspects of belonging. Even if they attended church services with some regularity, they did so to see and be seen more so than to actually take part in the religious outreach of the church.

Pastor Zanker wrote in his article that he looked at “the Scripture from the Book of Acts to discover what going to church can do for us.” Imagine my surprise when the first thing he mentioned was “that the church gives us a sense of fellowship or belonging.” Well, that was legitimate. We are herd animals and whether it is a political party, the Sons of Norway, the Lions Club, or the local sports booster club, most adults belong to something; actually, we usually belong to several groups or organizations. Whenever we move into a new school, a new community, a new job or any new social setting, we immediately set about trying to find someone with whom we can identify so we can have that essential sense of belonging.

Not being a student of the Bible, I had no idea if the Book of Acts actually addressed the matter as specifically as the pastor suggested, but I was willing accept that it did. (A minister wouldn’t lie, would he?)

The second thing the church gives us that Pastor Zanker identified was the opportunity to worship. “Worship,” he said, “is more than what goes on in a church building, but is a way of life.” We need, he added, “one hour of focused worship with our attention on Jesus Christ.” My disappointment began to grow. One hour? The pastor was justifying his church’s weekly service and his position as the church’s leader rather than answering the question posed by his article’s title.

Ministers, I fear, are guilty of asking questions and answering them the way they want, much like politicians, because they are seldom, if ever required -- from the pulpit at least -- to defend what they say. Parishioners are expected to sit passively and absorb whatever “wisdom” the pastor presents. Notice that even when people in the pews are sitting there with Bible in hand, the minister feels completely comfortable telling the congregation the meaning of a particular passage he just read to them. He expects them to accept his interpretation. And they seem always to accept it. I’ve never seen a parishioner stand up and say, “Wait a minute, reverend. I don’t think that is what this passage says at all.”

Apparently, we take seriously the notion that we in the congregation are the minister’s flock, and we act like sheep, following his every direction or suggestion.

Moving on, Reverend Zanker identifies the third thing the church does for us is “to lead us to spiritual maturity.” That means, I imagine, the spiritual maturity defined by the pastor and, possibly, church doctrine. Independent spiritual maturity is frowned on. The church is a congregation, a melding of many into one. There is strength in numbers but especially if those among the numbers think and act as one. (I will again confess that I am not a biblical scholar and I have not checked the Book of Acts to see if it spells out these four characteristics of church membership in any detail.)

The good pastor tells us that the “fourth thing the church does is that it prepares us for ministry.” Zanker explains what this means with these words: “God has placed each one of us on earth to make a contribution to society. We weren’t just created to consume resources and take up space. God designed each of us to make a difference with our lives. We all have special gifts and abilities that God has given us for ministry.”

I have no quarrel with that, but I do wonder how many of his congregation – remember, this is central Kansas – will acknowledge, "that God designed each of us,” including homosexuals, say, “to make a difference with our lives.” It is something to wonder about, wouldn’t you agree?

The final thing the church does for us is “help us to understand and carry out our life’s mission.” But only, I fear, if your life’s mission, as you have come to understand it during your growth in spiritual maturity, agrees with the tenets of the church and the general position of others in the church with which you have developed a sense of fellowship or belonging.

I learned years ago that the fundamental responsibility of any good pastor is to look after the needs of the church. The church is first. Pastor Zanker confirmed my suspicion when at the end of his article he writes, “My prayer is that maybe I’ve given you enough reasons why you might want to attend worship.”

Not satisfied to let it go with that, he adds, “Because as I told our congregation that when you understand what it means to not just go to church – but be the church, you will have discovered your life’s true purpose.” Although he means to make it sound like the church is nothing without you, he really wants you to believe that you are nothing without the church. I have to balk at that.

The pastor is preaching to the choir. He wrote this article not so much to persuade those Christians who do not attend church regularly but to confirm that for those who do, that according to the bible they are doing the right thing. He probably received many positive comments from his parishioners on his excellent article as they left church this Sunday. And that is what he was going for, I suspect.

I mentioned at the beginning that I was a doubting Thomas, but I feel compelled to say further that I was once a participating member of the church. I sang in the choir, often at two services, served as a deacon and later as an elder of the church, and served as vice president of consistory. I also served on the church’s budget committee, among other things. I know how things get done in the church and why. Modern churches are businesses, and more decisions in the church are made for business reasons than for religious reasons.