Should Christians go to Church?

Every since I can remember, I have heard the following statement made over and over by Christians and non-Christians.
“God doesn’t care whether I go to church or not”.
For the non-Christian, this statement was always prefaced with. “The world is my church. Nature is my sanctuary.”

For the “Christian”, it was always followed by “Church-going is a legalism. God only cares about my heart.”

I am concerned about this mind-set and would like to discuss it.

Yes, it is true that some people who go to Church are hypocrites.
Yes, it is true. If you read your Bible, and pray, you can hear from God. At home. Like a lone ranger.
And, also, it is entirely possible, if you attend a place of worship filled with non-committed, backbiting, hateful people, you can avoid all associated emotional pain and hurt, by staying at home.

Amazingly, some of these scholarly types who claim to learn so much on their own, have never read the verse about not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as believers.
And while, if pressed, they will admit they don’t really go to church anymore, most of them will make reference to some church, as their home church, if asked by another interested Christian “so where do you go to church”.
That’s because, most Christian deep down know that there really is no good reason they can’t find a great church in our free, Christian nation.

It does require effort. You have to get up and stop making excuses, before 11 a.m. on the weekends. You have to focus, and ask yourself, hmmmm. What assembly sounds like a good one to take a chance on today.
If you are out of practice, and don’t have a routine established, you’ll need to iron clothes, scrub your kids, get directions and do any of a dozen things ahead of time. Things that might not be convenient. Oh, and did I mention. Kids. As in maybe you have several. And they need breakfast. And it’s 10:30. Maybe you are running late.
Or the baby spits up. ON you. Three sunday mornings in a row.
Don’t you think for one minute Satan’s not going to throw every curve ball he can at you.
It will take time to get it all together.
(You know you need to go.)
Be patient with yourself.
Pick a casually dressed assembly if you don’t have dress clothes. Oh my goodness, there are so many choices.
Do you really have a reason? Not a good one.
Let’s all go to church this week.