5. “We’re not going to church any more. There are so many churches that we haven’t been able to decide which one to attend. If there weren’t so many, we probably would have become active years ago.”
6. “I enjoyed the sermon, the choir, and the singing But I won’t be back. The sight of all those empty pews depressed me.”
7. This woman would not come because “I have to take care of my children.” When they grew up and left home, she declined again and said, “I reckon I won’t. I’ve never been much of a hand for gadding about.”
Why are there Christians who quit going to church? I think I know.
You’re not going to like my answer.
They’re probably not Christians. (I know. I said, “Why don’t Christians attend church” and then said they’re probably not Christians.)
Consider this brief analysis.
There is a social element to church-going, for both believers and unbelievers. We meet friends, enjoy fellowship and help each other with various situations. God made us that way. We need people. “It is not good that (any one of us) should live alone.”
In this respect a church may fill much of the same function, in a way, as an Elks Club, American Legion or lodge. Or even—for some people, I have heard—the friends at the pub.
In the earliest church, the believers gathered for “the apostles’ teaching, for fellowship, for breaking of bread and prayer” (Acts 2:42). Fellowship was, and remains, a huge element in the function of a church.
