"I don't like going to church!"

Teenager: “I don’t like going to church. I didn’t like it when I was young, so why should I go now?”

I can think of a number of things I didn’t like when I was younger, but they were necessary to living life well. I didn’t like getting up early to go to work with the phone company. I didn't like going to the dentist. I didn’t like paying taxes. ad infinitum. But I got up early in order to provide for my family. I went to the dentist in order to preserve my teeth. I still have mine. And I pay taxes for the benefits that money affords the state and the nation.

Some people who refuse to “go to church” don’t want anything to infringe on their time. I recall my non-church-attending grandfather asking me, “Do you have to go to church to go to heaven?” I loved my grandfather very much, and he loved me, so I didn’t want to say anything in a tone that would unnecessarily offend him. I said, “Grandpa, if a person loves God, it is not an issue of having to go to church, it is an issue of wanting to go to express our appreciation for all He has done for us.”

I want to propose another way of looking at “going to church.” Initially, it may be viewed as dutiful obligation until we come to know the Lord better and we discover what He has done for us. Worship is a means of glorifying God. It is the means by which we express heart-felt gratitude and thanksgiving for all He has done for us.

Because we don’t want anything to interrupt us, it is viewed as a disruption, a sacrifice of our time. But worshiping God is worthy of the disruption. He is worthy of the sacrifice of whatever time has been set aside. Compare the sacrifice He made of His Son on the cross with the pitiful sacrifice we make of a few formal hours a week to express our gratitude and to lift up our collective voices to praise Him.

Jesus cleansed ten lepers (Lk 17:11-19). He was on his way to Jerusalem. The ten lepers “…stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’”

When he saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was not one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

To add insult to injury, the only cleansed leper to return happened to be a Samaritan, a foreigner— not an Israelite. The foreigner turned back and worshipped God. Luke describes him as “praising God with a loud voice” and “…he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.”

Where were the other nine?

I am persuaded that if a young person was willing to place themselves in an environment to learn more about God and His mercy toward them, a sense of gratitude would grow and it would no longer be an issue of “having to go to church to go to heaven.” Gathering with the saints would be for the purpose of praising God and giving Him thanks. (This doesn’t even take into consideration the encouragement your attendance is to everyone else who attends.)