I Don't Go to Church

Why You Shouldn’t Go to Church

Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—

not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under

the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.

And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ,

who fills all things everywhere with himself.

—Ephesians 1:21–23, emphasis mine

I can’t remember not going to church. My family and I were churchgoers from my early childhood. The memories I have are favorable. The church I attended wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t horrible either. I’d also have to say that, over the years, we were pretty regular attenders. That’s what good Christians did on Sunday morning—go to church. Really good Christians went to church on Sunday evening as well. And if you went back on Wednesday night, well, let’s just say the only place you could go from there was heaven.

God did some really wonderful things in my life in those early days of going to church, though it wasn’t at church that I surrendered my life to Christ. It was actually a vacuum cleaner salesman visiting our home who led my father to Jesus. I like to say he helped clean up our act. In the years that followed, Sunday school and youth group were formative in my spiritual journey. Later, in college (a secular one), my more sheltered life was peeled back and my faith benefited from what I call “life in the real world.” Thankfully, that experience propelled my relationship with Christ instead of dismantling it, and I experienced for the first time what I can only describe as authentic biblical community. Other Christ-following peers helped me understand the need for others in my relationship with God and assisted me in seeing more clearly my role and responsibility in his kingdom. “Kingdom” you say? And some lights begin to go on.

I probably need to say at this point that I grew more spiritually in my first six months of college than I had in the previous nine years since my conversion. I’d have to say the main reasons for this were having to own my faith more independently and the discipleship-oriented community of other, more seasoned followers of Christ. It also dawned on me that this holistic life in Christ had very little to do with where we met or on what day (our group met on Tuesday nights), but more to do with our being a community of believers who incorporated our devotion to Jesus in all areas of our lives. Of course we attended a local church and I developed a great relationship with the pastor—but I was becoming a 24-7-365 follower of Jesus, and it wasn’t really connected to going to church.

After those defining years of growth and perspective in college, I went on to teach in a public school for four years, met and married Lori (the love of my life since June 15, 1985), graduated from a seminary in the Midwest, experienced the blessing of four children (all young adults now), served as a youth pastor for five years, and then, in 1995, planted the church where I currently serve as the lead pastor. The last seventeen plus years have been an incredible journey, and many of the views I express in this book have been incubated in that context. I am so grateful to God for the people and ministry of Tri-County Church.

I know that’s a really fast rundown of my history, but I wanted to give you a little more personal information on my background. You see, I’m not at all against going to church as it relates to the weekend services millions of people attend each week all over the world. As the primary teaching pastor in our fellowship, I go to church three times every weekend: Saturday night and twice on Sunday. And my face shows up regularly on video at our multisite campuses. But there’s something more important going on in my mind—and in the minds of many others who show up weekly—than mere attendance. It’s an understanding of why we attend and what we do once we leave.

And so, as I promised, I’ll be sharing in this chapter some reasons I don’t go to church anymore, and then we’ll journey onward in the rest of this book to flesh out a more accurate definition of the church and how it is supposed to reflect the original character and agenda of God and his kingdom. That’s something I’ve labored to teach and model for our church for many years now. It’s catching on, but we have a long way to go.

Why I Don’t Go to Church

1. Church isn’t something you go to; it’s something you are.

This goes back to the idea of completeness that we covered in chapter one. To be whole as a human being means to be reconnected to God from the spiritual estrangement brought on by sin. A human being who is still on the throne of his or her life is not only separated from God but is also incomplete. Just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit form the completion of the Godhead, a man or woman who surrenders his or her life back to God for him to rule finds completeness, or wholeness. It’s what our first parents had before they sinned, and it’s what made them whole and alive.

To live a life without God is to not be fully human. We exist, but we are not alive. We have breath, but we are dead in spirit. We work for a living, but our work is not fulfilling. We tend to exploit God’s creation rather than help manage and conserve it. We’re not alone in the world, but we’re terribly lonely. We strive to get more, but we’re never satisfied. We achieve many worldly trophies, but we’re not being fruitful. And for all the woeful consequences that sin has brought to our lives and relationships, the most prolific and destructive impact of sin is our incompleteness.