By Barry Buzza

A friend of mine spoke with me the other day about his 11 year old daughter. He'd apparently had a very serious discussion with her about going to church.

Although their family faithfully attends a church in their city, Sara, their youngest, decided that she'd had enough! After all she argued "going to church doesn't make a person a Christian and besides that, there are a lot of people who do go to church who live worse lives than those who don't go!" My friend asked for a bit of advice from me, not as a pastor, but as a dad whose kids both faithfully serve in our church along with their husbands and children.

I thought about my answer carefully, because I've asked the same questions as Sara a few times myself.

Over the next three weeks, I'll write on the 10 reasons I believe that everyone should faithfully be part of a local church, but before I do, let me say up front that I agree with my friend's daughter. Going to church doesn't make me a believer or get me points with God, and conversely, not going to church does not mark me as an infidel! Someone once said, "Going to church doesn't make anyone Christian any more than putting a wheelbarrow into a garage makes it a car!"

Here are the first two of my 10 reasons why I believe we should all be active participants in a church. We should faithfully attend church:

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• To receive teaching from the textbook on our Christian life, the Bible. Just as every plant needs nurturing to grow, so does every living believer. The Word of God compares itself to water, milk, bread and meat because it nourishes us and keeps us healthy.

• To worship our Creator and Lord. Worship (which literally means giving worth to) is fundamental to the Christian faith. It lies at the heart of the first three of the Ten Commandments because it has a significant effect on our lives. God does not have a big ego that says, "I must be told I'm great every day." Worship doesn't even change God; (He is unchangeable and all sufficient in Himself) rather, worship aligns us with God and therefore, changes us! For that reason God commands us to honor Him always and set aside one day especially for Him. We call it a Sabbath day because Sabbath means to desist or stop. We stop our running for one day to be recharged, re-centered and re-aligned with our Creator. We were made to function that way. Without worship, we would tend toward self-centeredness, causing us to shrivel and eventually die spiritually. We need to worship and move toward God-centeredness.

By the way, many churches, including our own, have webcasts to help you get an idea of what you'll hear when you arrive at a scheduled service. Check a few out before choosing where you'd like to visit.

Barry Buzza, a regular contributor to canadianchristianity.com, is a veteran pastor, and also the president of the The Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada. www.barrybuzza.com www.foursquare.ca

January 13/2010