Why Should I Go To Church?

I've started to put together some ideas for this week's sermon, which is from Mark 13:32..36...

³² “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

The part that really stood out to me was in verse 34: "...each with his assigned task..."

There's an accountability that each of us has to be doing our own assigned task as part of the serving team. Sure, we work together and depend on one another in order to get our jobs done, but there is a sense of individual accountability to our Master for our own work. There is a need to be prepared for when He returns.

Paul echoed this idea in 1 Corinthians 3 when he rebuked the Corinthians on getting caught up with personalities and allegiances instead of simply working together for the Master.

As I was browsing the web I came across a number of sites posting reasons why Christians should be committed to attending a local church, and it was pretty much all good stuff. I think the bigger question than "Why should I attend church?" is actually "How can I play my part in being the Church?". Church services are very important, but they are one part of what it means for us to be the church together -to be the community of Christ's servants who are committed to fulfilling their tasks together. Again, as Paul writes in 1 Cor 12 and the New Testament commands all over the place, we can only fulfill our duties by working together and supporting one another.

So going to church is one part of what I do in my quest to be the church.

(God Willing) I'll post more information on how that works when I finish the sermon. The idea that is speaking to me right now though is that as God's people we need to focus less on the event of church services and our opinions of that event, and focus more on the big picture of how we are being the Church, and our personal responsibility (individual accountability to Christ) for how we are doing that.