#863 Why Go to Church?
November 26, 2023Hi Dr. Craig:
I enjoy your newsletter and appreciate the work that you do. I can speak for others in my school when I say that you are a lifeline for many seeking the truth and foundation of the Christian faith.
I am writing to draw your attention to an issue that I think deserves urgent apologetic attention. I am sure you have dealt with this in the past, but I would argue that this is the apologetic question of the present generation that must be answered in new and creative ways: Can the church be defended?
We don't hear Christians or anyone else attacking the ideal of the church. God may have had some intent for the church that was noble and important. Rather, what we cannot comprehend is that the real church as it exists in that chapel down the street is the very body of Christ that is necessary to the journey of my salvation and plays a meaningful role in God's providential care for the world.
I see this in my evangelical students regularly. They have few issues with miracles, the veracity of scripture, the existence of God, or the virgin birth, or the salvation of the unreached. Many are greatly impressed with the story of salvation and the themes of the gospel as described by the Bible Project and writers like N.T Wright. What they cannot comprehend is why any of this involves getting out of bed on Sunday morning, preparing for worship, and heading over to the hapless gathering of assorted people on 4th ave.
The moral failures of the church have become so obvious to these students, the spiritual encouragement they receive from their lackluster churches so meager, and the effort involved in dedication to the church so daunting for mentally overwrought and ill people, that many just don't get around to joining up.
The common answer we have given to this crisis is a cop out: churches just need to be better. Certainly, there is always the upward call of being better churches. But this does not get to the nub of our apologetic task. Churches have always been more harlot than bride. We are struggling now with this reality in a way that previous generations have not.
My two bits.
Boyd
United States
Dr. craig’s response
A
Yours is a very practical question, Boyd, which I as a philosopher am not particularly equipped to answer. Nevertheless, let me share a couple of brief thoughts.
I would take a quite different approach than what you say is “the common answer . . . to this crisis.” Rather I would place the blame squarely on the shoulders of those who refuse to attend and participate in church. They may not want to hear this answer, but it is, nevertheless, I think, the truth. We should not coddle them but treat them with tough love. As Jordan Peterson has so often emphasized, we should call them to a higher standard.
Those who refuse to attend and participate in church are acting unbiblically, in defiance of the requirements of a true disciple of Jesus. The local church is the body of Christ. We are commanded in Scripture not to neglect the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10.24-26). Those who refuse to do so are therefore being disobedient to Scripture and to the Lord.
The fundamental misconception of such people is that the reason for attending church is what one “gets out of it.” So if one doesn’t get anything out of attending church, as is sadly too often the case, one thereby thinks himself excused from this Christian duty. This is utterly misconceived. The reason we attend church is not to get something, but to give something, namely, corporate worship, which is due to God, not to mention love of others and service to them. The reason for “getting out of bed on Sunday morning [sometimes in the cold and the dark, I would add!], preparing for worship, and heading over to the hapless gathering of assorted people on 4th ave” is to render to God and our brethren what we owe them. The attitude you describe is reprehensibly selfish. How can a Christian who loves God deny Him what is His due and ignore the needs of brothers and sisters around him?
Jan once asked me, “Why is the church so messed up?” I answered, “Probably because it’s filled with people like us.” None of us is in a position to have a superior attitude to those in the local church. Of course they fall short of the ideal, sometimes horribly short, but we, too, are flawed and failing. These people are children of God, for goodness’ sake, and therefore royalty! They deserve to be treated with respect. Humility demands that we forbear with others’ failings and treat them with compassion.
We can also ask ourselves what each of us can do to contribute to the health of the local body of Christ. Remember that each of us has been given a spiritual gift which we are responsible to exercise in the context of the local body for the building up of the whole (I Peter 4.10). Those who refuse to attend and participate in church are neglecting their spiritual gift and are therefore impairing, not only the body of Christ, but also themselves in their own spiritual development. Of course, if the sort of worship going on in our local church is not conducive to our worshiping God, then we need to find a different church which is more conducive to that end. But what is wrong to do is to cease going to church and participating in the life of the church altogether.
- William Lane Craig