Ask for Grace and Go to Church

Go Anyway

I know you might not feel like it this weekend. You might not feel like it for a while. The reasons you don’t feel like going to church might be good, bad, or ugly. But, as a fellow sheep loved by the same Shepherd, I’m asking you to trust God, ask for grace, and go.

Go, because the church gathers every Sunday to remember the death of Jesus for our sins and the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and that’s precisely what we all need to remember and celebrate, regardless of what else is happening in our lives.

Go, because like Martha, you’ve been working all week, and like Mary, you need to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear his word (Luke 10:38–42).

Go, because the songs of the saints are the soundtrack of the Bible, and your soul needs to sing and hear singing more than you’ll ever know.

Go, because the Bible you’ll hear tells the true story of the world, and the gathering of heaven’s saints on earth is nothing less than the presence of the future.

Go, because the gifts Christ poured into your life didn’t come with a receipt, and you have the happy duty to use these God-given tools to build up his spiritual house.

Go, because even though your church has problems, your church also has a Savior, a healer, a shepherd, and a friend.

What If I Don't Feel Like Going to Church?

David Gundersen

This booklet motivates Christians to go to church even when they feel like it will be unsatisfying, unhelpful, or just plain awkward by helping them rediscover the power of being present at their church's gathering. Part of the Church Questions series.

Go, because right there with you or somewhere far away, there’s a brother or sister who’s hurting or hungry or persecuted or imprisoned, and if your church family is worshiping, so can you.

Go, because the world’s been seducing your senses all week, but what you most need to see, hear, taste, and touch are the waters of baptism and the body and blood of Christ.

Go, because the rest you ultimately need is not just sleeping in or getting out of town but rediscovering the gospel’s promise that in Christ you’re forgiven, new, and free.

Go, because the stone trapping you in the cave of anger or bitterness or despair or doubt or loneliness or fear can be rolled away in a night, and once God does it, no Roman soldier or Jewish priest can stop him.

The most important time to be at church is when you don’t feel like it.

Go, because the good news of this gospel is not just that you’re reconciled to God but that we’re reconciled to each other.

Go, not because your trials aren’t real, but because that table with bread and wine represents the crucifixion of the worst sins you could ever commit and the worst realities you’ll ever experience.

Go, and in your going, grow. Go, and in your going, serve. Go, and in your going, let God pick up the shards of your heart and piece together the kind of mosaic that only gets fully crafted when his saints stay committed to his long-term building project—when we speak the truth to one another in love (Eph. 4:15–16).

The most important time to be at church is when you don’t feel like it. So please, brothers and sisters, go.

This article is adapted from What If I Don’t Feel Like Going to Church?.

David Gundersen (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as lead pastor at BridgePoint Bible Church in Houston, Texas. He previously spent fifteen years teaching and training Christian college students as a resident director, associate dean, and professor.