"A Gallup poll found 39 percent of Catholics reported attending church between 2014 and 2017. The figure is markedly lower than the 45 percent average reported from 2005 to 2008." WRNews
Reposted with permission from The Cripplegate.
by Eric Davis
Maybe you’ve heard it. “We can’t make it to church today, so we’ll just do church as a family.” “I can just do church on a hike this morning in God’s creation.” “The church is really the people, so we can do church wherever. God is everywhere, after all.”
Do we really need to go to a building on a certain day for it to count as doing church? If so, isn’t that legalistic?
It’s becoming increasingly popular to fashion new ways to “do church.” But how do we discern what does and does not constitute going to church? God’s word has plenty of wisdom on the issue.
In short, my hike or a Bible open in my living room with the kids is not church. Here are a few reasons why doing church away from church isn’t church.
To assert that we can do church away from church is an unparalleled way to approach life events. Do we approach other areas of life like that?
Husbands, next time you’ve scheduled a family day, just before it happens, tell your wives, “Honey, I’m actually going to do our family time on a solo-camping trip. But I’ll think about you and the kids while I’m sitting out there with the dog and my knife cramming Spam in my mouth. It still counts as family time, right? We don’t have to be all legalistic, honey.”
"If you allow your children to stop going to church because they dislike it but insist they go to math class because it is good for them, those are "atheistic" priorities, according to Russell Moore." CPost
"Barna has released a report on the first of a two-part exploration of faith and spirituality outside the church, looking at the 'fascinating segment of the American population who, as the saying goes, love Jesus but not the church.'"
"Earlier this year, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that the Church of England was battling to maintain its place in an increasingly 'anti-Christian' culture as attendances at services fell to their lowest ever levels." LTelegraph
"A new survey suggests the logistics of going to services can be the biggest barrier to participation—and Americans’ faith in religious institutions is declining." The Atlantic
"Podcasts have become such a phenomenon among Christians that some are starting to worry: If listeners can just download 'church' and partake on their own time, will they still feel the need to belong to an actual church?"
