FOR MILLIONS OF PROFESSING CHRISTIANS THE QUESTION OF WHETHER TO ATTEND CHURCH IS A REAL ISSUE. Many have already decided against attending and will never again attend without a radical change in their thinking. There are multitudes of true believers who simply do not like church because of bad experiences that they have had in the past.

Personally, I believe that there are both good and bad reasons for attending a local assembly and, consequently, good and bad reasons for not attending. People who choose to go to a church for wrong reasons frequently leave the church for wrong reasons as well.

I was saved on a Monday night and found myself in Prayer Meeting at the little Bethel Baptist Church of Hartford, Connecticut on Wednesday night. I had planned to go dancing that evening and there was a struggle between the part of me that wanted to dance with pretty girls and the part of me that wanted to be with believers for the study of God’s Word. I had skipped lunch at work on Tuesday and Wednesday in order to read my little red Gospel of John and I was experiencing a new and growing desire to know more about my new-found Lord from Scripture. The struggle, though real, was brief; the prayer meeting won and the dance hall lost...forever. From that time to this, a spiritual odyssey of 43 years that took bad turns as well as good ones, I have always made regular attendance on the teaching of God’s Word and fellowship with the people of God a priority. Nor am I sorry. May I suggest ten reasons for regular attendance at a local assembly where Christ is honored and God’s Word is faithfully and accurately taught.

First, regular attendance is the revealed will of God in Scripture. Paul says to the Hebrews "...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some." The Apostle was referring to Jews who were assembling at Jewish synagogues, where Law was being proclaimed as a means of approach to God, while forsaking congregations where the grace of Christ was taught. However, an application of this injunction to Gentiles is warrantable, especially when study of the Scriptures proves that the local assembly is God’s invention, not man’s, and that it is the primary provision that a loving God has made for our spiritual growth and service.

Second, it is mandatory when sound Bible doctrine is the priority. Our Lord, in His earthly ministry, said "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." True interpretation requires that we recognize that He spoke this as a Jew under Law to Jews under Law, but the fact that He said "man" makes the declaration all inclusive: Gentile man as well as Jewish man. "Earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord." When God speaks, man’s number one responsibility is to listen! Spiritual growth, the kind that matters most, for a member of the Body of Christ is always dependent upon the regular intake of sound Bible doctrine in the letters of God and Paul.

Third, it provides continuity in the study of doctrine. God has appointed pastor-teachers to be full-time students and teachers that the Word of God may be taught dispensationally, systematically, and categorically to congregations. Every pastor should have something in every message for the unsaved, the new believer, the intermediate, and the advanced student of God’s Word. The congregational meeting should be a one room schoolhouse for the study of the Person and work of Christ taking believers from Kindergarten through graduate school.

Fourth, it indicates support of the message. When believers attend "wrong assembly" or no assembly at all, they indicate that God’s provision for the believer’s growth and ministry is a foolish one and that the regular intake of His message is unimportant.

Fifth, it assures the continued life of the local assembly. The voter who stays home on election day is not refusing to vote...he is voting against all of the candidates. He is saying, in effect, that none of the candidates is worth voting for. Frequently I meet believers who attend "wrong assembly" or attend no assembly at all. They are, in effect, voting to close the "right assembly" down. They are saying that the assembly doesn’t deserve the support of Christian people.

Sixth, it affords opportunity for ministry in the local assembly. Whenever a true believer "forsakes the gathering of ‘ourselves’ (Grace believers) together," he precludes the opportunity of others ministering to him. He also rules out the privilege and responsibility of ministering to others in the congregation. In other words, if I stay away from church I cannot minister to those who do attend, nor can they minister to me. This is contrary to the plan of God, for He has constituted us a body and made the members of that body interdependent. We need each other, and when we don’t fellowship, that need goes unmet.

Seventh, it facilitates teaching and admonishing of one another. Will Rogers said, "Be humble, we’re all ignorant. We’re just ignorant about different things." The Jews have a proverb, "He is a wise man that can learn from fools." Everyone has something to teach us, but saints who love God and His Word can, in sharing the Word with us, radically and wonderfully improve our lives and ministries. I learn, I think, as much from the people that I teach as they learn from me.

Eighth, it influences the interest and the response of others. Children who grow up in Christian homes often take church lightly because their parents and friends take it lightly. If professing Christian parents don’t go to church at all, or if they only go occasionally, or if they can find all kinds of excuses for missing, usually the children will follow suit. Parents whose interest in Christ and His message is real will want to demonstrate the reality of that interest by giving a life-long priority to that message and to the divinely ordained institution that proliferates it. Also, people draw people...sad, but true. When visitors who lack the spiritual maturity to recognize that numbers are neither a sign of God’s blessing nor of man’s success attend, and there are few in attendance, they will usually not return. I used to teach a ladies Bible class where the attendance averaged 85 and was sometimes over a hundred. People came and stayed with us because they viewed the project as a success. I could have taught exactly the same truths to six people and immature visitors would have written The Bible class off as a failure. Even people who sleep through a mid-week Bible class render a service. They help to fill pews, and this encourages new believers, baby Christians, and even the unsaved to return.

Ninth, regular attendance helps provide a basis for assembly expanding evangelism. We Christians cannot "worship God in the Forest Preserve" and effectively evangelize the world! To minister meaningfully in the face of all the challenges that confront us we need a united front. We need the strength of numbers. We need a cooperative effort. The local assembly is not only a classroom for every believer’s spiritual, intellectual, and social growth, it is a mission station with which God means to reach the lost. People can do as a group what they could never accomplish as individuals. THE GRACE BELIEVER is a ministry that requires a number of dedicated people...no one of us could afford the expense and the time to put it together and to publish and circulate it. Together we do it. Our building required a joint effort to build and maintain. Our radio ministry would not be possible for any one of us working alone, but working together we have been able to keep the Grace Message on the air for ten years and, with it, reach thousands of people. Not bad for a small group of people!

And Tenth, regular attendance recognizes the wisdom of God’s plan...the Body! When saved people who are serious about Christ and positive toward Bible doctrine unite to study God’s Word and to win the lost to Him according to God’s plan, they demonstrate the genius of God in inventing such a wonderful organism. The local assembly teaching the message of Christ risen and glorified is a minor visible representation of the greater Body of Christ. In Eternity past God’s infinite wisdom devised the most perfect plan for carrying out His will in this Mystery dispensation.

When I joined my first little church in Hartford, I joined it for all the wrong reasons. My sister had joined. It was close to my apartment. The people were friendly. It was small so I could be a "big fish" in a little pond. It was largely "blue collar" and so was I. The pastor was likeable. In Ephesians 4:11-16, God tells us plainly that He invented the pastor-teacher to escort the believer from spiritual infancy to maturity by teaching an advanced course on the Person and work of Christ. This being the case, I should have chosen the most doctrinally accurate congregation in town where that would be most likely to happen. If a church is "friendly" that’s a bonus, but wise believers never pick a church for its friendliness. If you wished to become a brain surgeon, would you pick a friendly medical school, or a good one?

But some will say, "I want to regularly attend a Pauline Grace teaching church where sound Bible doctrine will enable me to know Christ better, love Him more, and serve Him faithfully, but there isn’t one within commuting distance of my home." The "miracle" of the tape recorder has made it possible to benefit from the ministry of your "right pastor" even from a distance. It isn’t the ideal, but it’s the next thing to it.

The Grace-Gospel Center, for instance, sends tapes to people in distant parts of the country and even to foreign countries. Believers that we have never met consider themselves part of our congregation. This way they can obey God’s instruction to absorb and utilize Grace truth regardless of distance.

Pick the best assembly that you can find. This is the plan of God for you, and God’s will is always best by far!