When You Don’t Feel Like Going to Church
I get it. You would think that I wouldn’t, since I am a pastor. But I do get it. Some Sunday mornings you wake up and think to yourself, “I really don’t want to go to church today.” You’ve had a long week. You’re in conflict with a member of your family and don’t want to have to put on a happy face for your church friends. There’s a person at your church that you just don’t have the energy to face that day. You don’t have any responsibilities that morning. Your church’s worship services are now available to watch online. And so you wonder, “Maybe I should just stay home this morning.” And then you quickly answer yourself, “Yeah, that sounds nice.” Rest from church feels like rest for your soul on that particular day.
Have you ever had a Sunday morning like that? I know I have. Truly, more than you might think.
What should a Christian do on a Sunday morning like that?
In this post I want to argue that you should go to church anyway, and for the following reasons…
Reason #1: Your soul needs God’s Word more than your body needs pancakes and a few extra hours of sleep.
Remember the ever-relevant words of Deuteronomy 8:3 and Luke 4:4. “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” You need God’s Word more than you need bread. You need the living, breathing Word of God more than a couple hours of sleep. More than a few hours to yourself. More than a good breakfast (whether it’s literally pancakes or something else). More than a quiet house. More than whatever you’ll end up scrolling through on your phone that morning. You get the idea.
Whatever it is that you think you need that morning, it is at least highly likely that you need a nourishing meal from the Word of God much more than that thing. It is highly likely that hearing Christ proclaimed from the Scriptures by a qualified pastor who has committed himself to love and lead you as a fellow member of the same local church will do far more good for your soul than a plate of food and a few more hours in your bed. Yet it’s also not an either-or situation, but a both-and situation, to be clear. You can go to church and then eat some pancakes (or whatever) and take a nap. What a great use of a Sunday that would be, in fact. Nourish your soul first. Then, after you’ve done so, feed and rest your body.
Reason #2: God has designed the church and her worship gatherings to bless you in ways you won’t be blessed in isolation.
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” says Jesus (Mark 2:27). Whatever your view of the Sabbath under the New Covenant and its relationship to the Lord’s Day (Sunday), it shouldn’t be a stretch to see Jesus’ words there as a strong indication that whenever he commands his people to come together for a special purpose like corporate worship, that he intends for those times to be a blessing to his people. We ought to trust that when God commands us to not neglect meeting together as his people (e.g. Hebrews 10:25) that he is out for our blessing, not our burden; to lift us up, and not to weigh us down.
What blessings do you miss when you miss the Sunday gathering of your local church? You miss the blessing of hearing God’s people sing and celebrate the truth. You miss the blessing of hearing God’s Word preached to your heart by someone who has prayed for you the week before. You miss the assurance you receive whenever God’s people eat and drink in remembrance of Jesus. You miss hearing of the good things God has been doing in the lives of his people. You miss being made aware of the struggles of your friends. You miss opportunities to serve those who are struggling just like you. You miss the encouragement of Christian friends. You miss opportunities to get to know your brothers and sisters in Christ better, which are necessary for sweeter friendships with them down the road. You miss being reminded of the Gospel and of your need for a Savior. You miss being encouraged by your pastors. Among other good things.
You don’t get any of these things by staying at home by yourself on the Lord’s Day. You just don’t.
God has surprising blessings in store for his people when they gather together in his name; blessings of a special, sanctifying nature – blessings that exceed the blessings of solitude and isolation. Next time you are tempted to believe there are blessings in store for you by staying away from your church family on a Sunday morning, take that as an opportunity to trust the Word of the Lord and pursue the greater blessings that are to be gained when his people come together for worship.
Reason #3: God promises to make his grace and power known in unique ways in the gatherings of his people for worship.
It is interesting how Peter talks about what happens when the church comes together to worship Christ in 1 Peter 2:4-5. He says there that “as we come to [Jesus]” together in worship, God forms us into a “spiritual house,” that is, a temple of sorts. A house for him to dwell in. Meaning, when the church comes together to worship Jesus, God forms them into a place where his Spirit dwells with his people in a uniquely saving and sanctifying way.
And as he does this, Peter says, he forms his people into “a holy priesthood” who go on to offer “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus.”
What all this means is that God shows up to powerfully save, sanctify, encourage, uplift, empower, preserve, and build up his people into a vibrant, life-giving place whenever the church comes together to worship Christ, and increasingly so as they come together for this purpose again and again over time.
One takeaway from this is that both the spiritual growth of Christians individually, and that of the a local church collectively, is tied directly to how intentional and engaged we are in the worship gatherings of the church. You miss out on redemptive blessings from God whenever you neglect the ordinary means of grace in the local church.
Reason #4: If you are honest with a few key people about how you’re feeling that day, you are likely to find a Christian who will pray for and encourage you.
I say this mainly because I want for you to reconsider this idea that when you come to church you have to put your “happy face” on. That when you come to church you have to pretend that you have no real problems. That when you show up on a Sunday morning you have to be “okay” and put together and not visibly troubled.
The theological word for this sort of thinking is “bologna.” It’s straight up bunk.
Are you a sinner? Yes, you are. Do you live in a world that’s under the curse of God because of sin? Yes, you do. As Andrew Peterson asks, “Do you feel the world is broken?” And, “Do you feel the shadows deepen?” And, “Do you wish that you could see it all made new?”
Yes, you do. We all do.
Furthermore, is the Lord aware that when you come to church you might not be okay, or that you might not want to be there? He is. He is infinitely more aware of your struggles, sins, weaknesses, and frailties than you are. He gets it.
More than that, do you really think everyone else in your church is okay? The fact is, no one is. Sure, some are doing better than others. Some will have had a better week than others. Some may be sitting on a mountain top on any given Sunday morning. But we’re all still deeply corrupted sinners. And we all still live in a very broken world. And church life can be hard for all of us at times because of these things. What this means is that everyone is struggling with something, every single time the church comes together to worship Christ.
I assume you appreciate it when others are honest with you about your struggles. Well, here’s something that may surprise you. They appreciate it when you’re honest with them about your struggles too. And when you’re honest with them, it gives them concrete opportunities to minister to you. I truly think you’d find that if you make it a point to be real and transparent with people at church on a consistent basis, you will gain a lot more encouragement from them than if you keep all your problems to yourself. Food for thought, at least.
At any rate, keeping all your problems to yourself is dishonest and pretentious. So, just don’t do that.
Reason #5: It will likely be better for you to get your eyes off of yourself and onto other people who need the ministry of a Christian friend that morning.
It is helpful to remind yourself that the gathering of the church on the Lord’s Day isn’t about you. It may be for you in many ways, but it’s not about you whatsoever. In fact, I believe one of the wisest designs in the Lord’s Day is that it lifts our eyes from our own circumstances and struggles, to the Lord who reigns over them (first of all), and then (secondarily) to the people he has put around us to walk through this life with until we die or until Christ comes again.
Notice again how the writer of Hebrews spurs on a group of discouraged Christians in Hebrews 10 to make the gatherings of the church a priority in their lives, despite the myriad temptations they face to draw back from those gatherings. In Hebrews 10:24-25 he says this:
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Did you see that?
What is one of the chief purposes of the regular gatherings of the local church? To stir up one another to love and good works. To encourage one another increasingly as we see the day of Christ’s return drawing near.
That is to say, not so much to be encouraged, but to encourage.
What this means is that when you arbitrarily or voluntarily keep yourself away from the gathering of the local church, you are not merely inoculating yourself from the ministry of others to you, you are withholding your ministry to others from them. This, ironic as it may be, is not actually good for you. It is good for you to minister to them. Perhaps it would help you and mysteriously lead to your own encouragement and endurance in the faith, to, instead of staying under your covers on that next dreary-feeling Sunday morning, you came to church looking for people to encourage and serve. Obedience to God is good for the soul, after all.
All I know is that if everyone showed up every Sunday with that attitude, church life would be a whole lot more encouraging and edifying than it often is. And it might actually help all of us want to be at church more often and more consistently. Which, at least to me, seems like a decent reason to go to church, even if you don’t necessarily want to.
So then, the next time you wake up on a Sunday morning not wanting to go to church and wonder what you should do, I would encourage you to just go anyway.
