You Dont Have to Go to Church to Get to Know Your God
Dominicus is coming, and millions of people all over the world will observe themselves in local churches; participating in worship services, Bible studies, and historic period-based ministries, and finding swell encouragement and community and joy there.
You might well be one of those people.
But you lot might not.
For all sorts of reasons; either because you've been excluded or damaged or made to feel unwelcome, or because your faith is shaken or your pain is too bully or your heart is too weary, you might find yourself exterior the walls of a church.
It'southward okay, God is there besides—I hope you.
Nigh of united states of america have grown upward believing that the Church was a building, and that you lot went to worship as a weekly activity. Faith and life and spiritual growth were all about getting to that edifice, considering that building was where your encountered God.
That is simply partially true.
But the greater, far more glorious truth honey friend, is that yous are the Church building; that God is all around and ever-nowadays and inside you. And and so wherever you find yourself this morning time, that footing is holy. When your mind and heart are oriented toward the things of God, your very life is an deed of worship.
This Sunday:
You may be snuggled in your bed with your family and dog, telling stories and giggling abroad the morning time.
You may exist jogging with your best friend through the wooded paths only coming to life in the early on morning sun.
You may be driving through the empty dorsum roads with the roof open, diggings the 80'south metal that reminds you of when you had pilus for the breeze to accident through.
You might be having breakfast with friends giving thanks for life and family and the twenty-four hours.
You might be in the garden, your knees pressed to the damp soil, smelling the leaves simply popping upward through the basis.
These places are all sacred.
They are waiting sanctuaries for God to be seen and heard and experienced.
They are common cathedrals, fully saturated with the presence of the Divine.
Church-less Sundays can bring a great deal of guilt, especially if yous grew upwardly in organized religion. When you notice your spiritual life being defined outside of the local church building, you can tend to experience like you're doing it incorrect, or that the experience is somehow counterfeit—less spiritual. You either hear an warning go of in your own head, or from well-meaning church building friends or from pushy pastors that you demand to become back to church.
Well, you may and you lot may non.
Y'all may just need to stay correct where you lot are.
For many people, because of the struggles nosotros mentioned higher up, organized religion is the very barrier they need to overcome to get closer proximity to Jesus. Information technology is the thing that most hinders their pursuit of peace. Information technology actually creates unrest within them. And in this way, for those people, "church" is the wrong answer to the question of "How practice I grow spiritually?"
If you can't or won't find your manner into a brick and mortar building this Sunday, be encouraged. You can fully love God without going to a church building. Plain community is i of the ways nosotros blossom. Equally we navigate relationships, equally we dear and seek honey, as we requite and receive pity, mercy, forgiveness, and kindness—we grow in ways we never would otherwise. At that place is value in sharing life with other people who are seeking to exist the best version of themselves. Only these opportunities are not bars to the church building, waiting for you lot to show upwards and receive them there.
God is always close by and easily accessible. Divinity frequently comes bearded in ordinary days, uneventful moments, and typical conversations: making breakfast with your kids, playing with your domestic dog, getting a rare quiet intermission with your teenager, reading a book you lot beloved, sleeping in because you're completely wearied, communicable upward with an old friend over coffee. These can all exist rich, beautiful, religion-affirming experiences that do more for your soul than an hr worship service e'er could.
Everything God has for you is available to you right where you are; in the woods, in bed, around your table, at the game, having coffee with your spouse, pruning the flowers, driving downwards the Interstate.
These can exist the places you lot fully district with God and with God's people; where you reflect and pray and learn and study and mediate and feel gratitude and seek guidance. Anything we practise that is intentionally done with an awareness of God and others—thatis Church building because nosotros are the Church.
There is nowhere in Scripture where Jesus commands usa to get to a edifice called "Church". It was ever about sharing life with people. All that existed in the New Testament were business firm churches where people were already living together in deep, relational community. The idea that we need to travel to sit in a space with strangers and consume religious entertainment is not at all Biblical. So while it may be helpful (and to many information technology is), it is not necessary. If people endeavour to make you lot feel guilty for not attending a church building, know that they take missed the bespeak, not you.
There may be a time in the about future when you once again find your dwelling house in a local church customs. Just you might also never get back in that location once again. And either way, your faith can exist rich and real and fully life-giving.
Christianity isn't a building or an hour-long Dominicus morning activeness. It's you living with a desire to reflect Jesus.
Wherever you notice yourself this Sunday, practise this equally all-time you tin. God is with you.
Whether inside or exterior the church edifice,
whether in your Sunday best or in ragged pajamas—be encouraged.
For further reading: Here's why the Bible doesn't telephone call whatsoever building "The Church."
Source: https://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/09/04/relax-christian-you-dont-have-to-go-to-church/
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