Article taken from the Burnet Bulletin "Letter to the Editor"
Why go to church?: The answer
Dear Editor:
An interesting question that I hear occasionally is, "Why go to church?" I came across a story a churchgoer wrote about church attendance that helps to answer the question.
It all began with a letter to the editor of a newspaper. The churchgoer complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "IVe gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. Bur for the life of me, I can't remember a single (one) of them. So I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: "IVe been married for 30 years now. In that time, my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals,
I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
Regular church attendance is vital nourishment to the believer. The fellowship that comes from being a part of a vibrant church body provides each of us with the encouragement needed for each week's journey. The writer of Hebrews emphasized that we "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together," Hebrews 10:25a.
On a very practical note, Christian fellowship provides us with encouragement for life we can get nowhere else. Make regular church attendance a part of your life today and remember when you are DOWN to nothing....God is UP to something! Don't forget the old saying, "Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible!" Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment in our church family that we receive through regular church attendance!
Pastor Dwayne Edwards Hoover Valley Baptist Church