Can a True Believer really say: "Church is not for me"?

A Pastor's desire is to shepherd the flock that God has entrusted to his care (1 Peter 5:2). But what about the "sheep" who don't want to be with the rest of the flock? Are they really sheep? If so, why would they knowingly wander from the safety and security of the rest of the flock? Why would any believer neglect the fellowship and food that is necessary to their growth and maturity?

It seems we live in a day when some think they can worship when and where and how they want to regardless of the clear teaching of Scripture. "I don't need a preacher, don't like sitting with hypocrites, and feel just fine worshiping God at a place and time of my own choosing." While a professed believer may not say what they think with such clarity; they demonstrate what they think with their continued absence from the gathered body of believers.

Pastor Jared Wilson has written about this same issue. I found the introduction to his article to be a little hard to follow. A few paragraphs in and he was laser focused in addressing the attitude that proclaims "Church is not for me."

Here is some of what he has written...

"...I think we ought to see the talk about agency and enjoying the church outside formality and institutions and the traditions of singing songs and listening to monologue teaching for what it really is: self-worship. A self-indulgent love of our own voices and preferring of them above all others. In church, after all, no one can hear you tweet.

Certainly one can be self-centered inside a church gathering, but the church gathering is nevertheless where all the sinners ought to be at the appointed time, smack-dab in the middle of a congregational experience specifically organized against the idolatry of personal preference. Not just because God says to do it — although that’s reason enough — but because it is good for us to have our singular voice lost in the sea of corporate praise and it is good for us to shut our social-media-motor-mouths for a bit and hear “Thus saith the Lord.” We should go to church — not mainly, but nevertheless — because it confronts and stunts our spiritual autonomy and individualism. We should go lest we become Cainites, saying “I’m not my brother’s keeper.” Or reverse Cainites, “My brothers aren’t my keepers.”

Of course most of us prefer to worship at the First Church of Hanging Out With My Friends at The Coffee Shop. Of course the more elite of us prefer to worship at My Own Speaking Engagements Community Church. Because, we believe, we “learn better” when we’re the ones doing the talking.

But something happens when you stop submitting to the communal listening of congregational worship and start filling the air with your own free range spiritual rhetoric. Your talk of God starts to sound less like God. He starts sounding like an idea, a theory, a concept. He stops sounding like the God of the Bible, the God who commands and demands, the God who is love but also holy, gracious but also just, et cetera. He begins to sound less like the God “who is who he is” and more like the God who is as you like him." (Read the complete article HERE)

Well, that's pretty straight up! I agree with him. Church attendance is not optional for a growing believer nor for a mature saint. Gathering together with other believers is God's plan for His people and you will find me in Church on Sunday. Yea, but you are the preacher, you are paid to be there. No, I am a Christian and it is my joy, delight and blessing to gather together with brother's and sister's in Christ to worship, sing, give, pray, and hear the Word proclaimed each and every Sunday.

You Know where you can see me tomorrow,
Pastor Mike