I have been going to church since I was a newborn baby. My parents taught me that church is important. It is what we as a family did. … It really was never a question for me. When I grew up, got married and started our family we continued this pattern of making church a regular part of our lives.

I have never regretted our decision in any way. Church has not always been perfect, but then again … what is. I have had jobs that I was mistreated in, had teachers who did not treat me fairly, played sports where I was wronged, been treated unfairly while shopping, I could go on.   I never stopped going to any of those places because of it. Church is just a place where people go to worship God together and learn more about God’s ways. Did you catch that? A place where “people” go. Where ever there are people there will be mistakes made. That includes church.

On the other hand, I have met some amazing people through church, who have had a huge impact on my life. I learned to care for others in a way that I don’t think I would have anywhere else. I have watched as my kids grew up learning to serve God.  Now they are raising their families to do the same. I have experienced some amazing times with God. I know that I have had some great times with God away from church too, but there is something powerful about enjoying God with others who are doing the same.

As I have spent a lot of time contemplating this subject in the last few weeks. I thought of all the typical scriptures that talk about the importance of gathering together with God’s people, worshiping together, & references to the church being the bride of Christ. I have heard those same scriptures all my life and I believe them, but yet I have heard so many times Christians say that they don’t need church on a regular basis or in some cases at all.  This makes me sad … why?  I mean, going to church is a decision that works for me and my family. If you can be a Christian and not go to church on a regular basis, why should it make me sad? I know as a pastor’s wife I should want people to come to church. Duh … but really, I have felt this way long before my husband ever went into the ministry. So it has nothing to do with that. 

I have read a couple things recently that just struck me …. One of my friends wrote something about church and how God compares Church to family. I have read that my whole life too, but it never really struck me the way it did this time. You see, God compares us to family because He values family … in fact he values family so much that he sent His Son Jesus to earth to die a horrific death and be raised from the dead three days later. What does that have to do with family? Well, when He did that he made a way for me to be adopted into his family through accepting what Jesus did on the cross. When I accepted Jesus I became God’s child. I am his family. If God values family that much, then so should we. You see God gave us earthly families that we are related to through blood. These families we will be tied to through out our entire lives. But He also gave us spiritual families that we are connected to through blood. Not the blood that runs through our veins, but through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. These families will be connected throughout eternity. Our churches may not be perfect, in fact I will say that they absolutely are not perfect … but they are family.  I would never have thought of keeping my children apart from each other when they were young. In fact my husband and I worked hard to find ways to encourage them to enjoy each other on a regular basis. We also taught them that they are family and even when they are mad at each other, they are still family. We taught them that having a disagreement has nothing to do with love. We should still love each other, even when we are mad at each other. This principle should be the same with our spiritual families that God gave us. Just like it would have been wrong for me to keep my children away from each other, it would have been wrong to keep them or us from our spiritual brothers and sisters. God intended for us to spend time together. We need each other just like family needs each other. We will get frustrated with each other occasionally, just like our earthly families frustrate us sometimes, but we are still family and we need to spend time together.

I said earlier that I have been in church since I was a baby. I have had the opportunity to meet and see a lot of people come to the church. I have seen families slowly quit going to church thinking that they can serve God on their own. While they do continue to believe in God and live for him, they often begin to compromise their values. It becomes easier and easier to slip away and spend less time with God. There is a difference between believing in God and Serving him. The Bible tells us to serve him. The Bible also says that even the demons believe in God (James 2:19). Believing in God is not enough. We need to choose to “serve” Him (Luke 4:8) The Scriptures say, “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him). There are so few people that really are able to continue to “serve” him without the church (a group of believers to encourage them and serve with them).  It saddens me because I can’t think of anyone who did this (backed away from church), who’s children continued to follow Christ. Being a kid is hard. They face so much pressure at school to do things that are so harmful to them. Kids need church to help them. When I was a teen ager and trying to decide what kind of a life I wanted, my church friends had a huge roll in my decision to continue to follow Christ. I did not want to disappoint them. Without them I know I would have taken a path that would have brought so much destruction my way. I am thankful for the church in my life. It may be imperfect but it is one of the biggest reasons that I serve God today.

A few weeks ago when Tim was preaching he read a passage out of Luke. Part of the passage talked about Jesus going to the synagogue “church”.  Luke 4: 16  When He came to the village of Nazareth, His boyhood home, He went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath …….  Did you catch that? This was a regular “thing” for Jesus. It said He went as usual. If being a Christian is about being a Christ follower and patterning our lives after Him. And if going to church was a regular part of Jesus’ life, then shouldn’t it be a regular part of ours? I believe it should. For those who have been hurt by church, I am so sorry. That was and is not God’s intent. I feel bad that the church has hurt so many people and I wish I could say that the church will never hurt anyone again, or that I will never hurt anyone. Unfortunately … the church is filled with imperfect people. We do make mistakes. We need to work hard to not hurt each other, but when it happens, it is important to remember that the church is still God’s plan. This is what God has set up. It has not changed. God still wants his people to be apart of His church.

If you have been away from church for any reason, weather it is because your life has been busy, or you have been focusing on spending time with family, or maybe because you were hurt by someone in church, I want to encourage you to make a new commitment to spend time with God and His people at His church, and to do what you can to make church a place that is good for all who come. 

                                                                                                     Julie Skolrud