Why Do We Need "Church?"

I think there is no coincidence that at present, depression and anxiety are on the rise while church attendance is dwindling. Pew Research Center, In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace (Oct. 17, 2019), p6.

"In 2009, regular worship attenders (those who attend religious services at least once or twice a month) outnumbered those who attend services only occasionally or not at all by a 52%-to-47% margin.  Today those figures are reversed; more Americans now say they attend religious services a few times a year or less (54%) than say they attend at least monthly (45%)."

Id. at p13 (from the Early 2000s to the Late 2010s, Pew “found that religious ‘nones’ [those who identify as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular] grew from 14% of the U.S. adult population to 22%.”); Gabbat, Adam, US News, Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline (Jun. 22, 2023); Jones, Jeffrey M., Gallup, U.S. Church Attendance Still Lower Than Pre-Pandemic (Jun. 26, 2023).

As to depression and anxiety see Witters, Dan, Gallup, U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs, (May 17, 2023)(reporting diagnosed/treated depression, including loneliness in younger generations, to be at an all-time high since 2015); and Scott, Jody, Vogue, Why Millennials are the Most Anxious Generation in History (Jan. 4, 2018)(attributing a 3.8% to 11.2% increase in anxiety in Australia to, e.g., the greater popularity of attention-demanding, impersonal computers and mobile devices).  As we make God less relevant to our lives, we struggle more with peace, happiness and contentment.  Therefore, a nourishing mental-health regime should include a regular dose of Vitamin God.

But sadly, many people nowadays do not want to eat their spiritual vegetables, we are not taking our saintly supplements seriously.  Why not?  Why are people not churchgoers as much as they used to be?  In sum, it seems that we are getting our socialization elsewhere, misbelieving that the sacred teachings are irrelevant to modern society and/or we are yielding too much to the world and its materialistic demands which discourage faith and promote control.

Years ago, when many of our modern cities were birthed, social opportunities were fewer than they are today.  Churches were center stage, in the middle of town square, next to City Hall.  It was the place to be. Roller, Sarah, HistoryHit, 5 Reasons Why the Medieval Church Was So Powerful (May 25, 2023)(community being one main driver for churchgoing).  Everyone went to church on Sundays, for socials and for any important meetings.  Avoiding the congregation meant shunning nearly the whole town.  Now, church has to compete with so many other social arenas: bars, malls, stadiums, arcades, bowling alleys, Broadways, coffee shops, movie theaters, restaurants, fitness clubs, etcetera.  In our day, one can have a very rich social life even if we never step foot inside of a church.  To worsen competition, churches have to battle against other charitable alternatives that are now spearheading the generosity churches used to lead, like medical care, food banks, shelters and so forth.  Whereas houses of worship used to be mainstream, they are moving out of the flow of action.  It seems we would simply rather hangout elsewhere.

Millennials are even less likely to attend church monthly, with only 35% in that generation doing so versus 61% of the Silent Generation. Pew Research Center, supra at p8.  Millennials appear to doubt whether biblical teachings are relevant to their daily lives.  Perhaps some are skeptical about the credibility of ancient stories of the Bible or believe that its moral lessons are antiquated, impractical for today’s complex and competitive society… thinking that practicing the moral discipline taught in the Bible today is a good way to get stepped on or left behind.  Moreover, some resent the judgment or disrespect often directed at minority communities like different races, women or LGBTQ people. Ericksen, Adam, Raven Foundation, Why Millennials Don’t Feel They Belong in Church and What We Can Do about It (Nov. 4, 2021)(“Millennials know that if God exists, then God is not like the judgmental, discriminatory, anti-science caricature many churches make God out to be.”).  While our lawmakers are over it, our churches will not get over it.  Numerous legal standards requiring inclusion and equality are proudly rejected by the church and we experience a sort of schizophrenic dichotomy when trying to be involved in secular society and active in many local churches.  The State tells us it is wrong and immoral to mistreat these groups and faith leaders tell us, no, it’s not, God wants you to do so.  Which one is it?  Perhaps our fellowships are lagging too far behind the government’s progress towards inclusivity.

Or maybe the younger generations are too easily yielding to employers, elders, political leaders and pop stars that run away from faith and church?  Many chiefs are concerned with their ability to control you, e.g., at work, taking advantage of your naivety, steering you towards capital interests versus personal growth.  While faith may be important to them, they do not see it as their responsibility to engender a passion for religion in the following generations.  So, believe it or not, effectively, many of our role models can be anti-faith, discouraging church in our lives.

It is unfortunate that adults are shying away from religion contemporarily, because we undeniably need God in our lives and churches employ expert instructors on how to access God.  These experts are trained in teaching us about God’s character as well as how to talk to Him, hear from God and heal common spiritual/mental diseases.  You would not ignore what leading physicians have to say on a topic of physical health, would you?  Why put on blinders every Sunday to block out the preachers?  Sooner or later, we must all go to the doctor, won’t we?  The same is true about God’s practitioners.  While regularly going to a brick-and-mortar building called “church” might not be your thing, routine spiritual development is a universal human thing.  Nevertheless, when I refer to church herein, I mean any sort of habit that works to improve your personal relationship with God.  Maybe you will attend religious services online, read self-help books, use apps or do alternative exercises to improve your spirituality.  But some spiritual maintenance is necessary.

So—why do we need “church” or spiritual experts mentoring us into having a better relationship with God?  There are two main reasons.  First, since we constantly experience new things in life, our mind is always changing, thus our attitude toward our friend, God, will either evolve or devolve over time.  Just like any other relationship we allow to go stale; if we are not spending quality time with God, our relationship with Her will naturally decline.  Second, life is loud—demanding, hard to ignore and deafening to our hearts.  Unless we practice techniques to quiet the world around us and its concerns we will become distracted from life’s primary purposes and God will become imperceivable… we will no longer recognize our old buddy.  We do not want to be strangers to God in this life or the next.  We must strike a balance as humans maintaining both the overt needs of our physical bodies and the covert requirements of our spiritual essences.  Without being proactive about nourishing the subtle needs of our spirit-woman, we will starve her to death—something our physical selves would unignorably warn us against via natural protests, while our spirits’ meeker modes of communication are much easier to disregard.

Floating or Sinking, In Which Direction Will You Change?

First, if we are not improving we are sinking downwards, so by not working at spiritual growth—something that removes weight, patches our imperfections, elevates us—we are taking on water, allowing life’s gravity to bring us down.  Hence, a commitment to continuously improving is needed to counter life’s inherent rains.  Church teaches us how to keep ourselves spiritually afloat, secure from leaks that might otherwise sink our ships. High spirits are important because the spirit controls the mind, which controls the body.  This foundational boost to our existence translates throughout.

Without an attitude of continual improvement, we will have recurrent devolution since  the world’s environment naturally applies some spiritual load. Galatians 5:16-26 (“For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh…”).  Existence as a human on earth demands that we think carnally at least some of the time for basic needs, food, drinking water, money, shelter, lust, fame, acceptance and legacy/achievement.  These all distract us from our piety, some more than others, and we all routinely think about them to survive and amuse ourselves.  In fact, the world’s concerns can be very loud and overbearing in our lives if we do not actively silence them.  Spiritual regulation mitigates the world’s concerns acting as a counterweight to them.  Still, to stop growing divinely while living as a human is to start sinking, allowing carnality to increase without any positive spiritual offset. 

The degree to which our boats take on water varies depending upon our spiritual focus.  Maybe we aggressively bail water and extra baggage, motorizing our pumps by avidly learning about God… maybe we have given up and we just let the hull fill at its own rate… or maybe, like most of us, we are somewhere in between, pitching water when we notice that not doing so will be too costly.  Once we start to notice the ship more or less sinking, we do something to float higher and hope that is enough to keep us safe and get us where we want to go.  But to be spiritually stagnant is to lose buoyancy.  We cannot stop bailing water and patching holes, we can never discontinue relating to God and spiritually learning, lest we sink.

Regularly Using Our Holy Floatation Devices

God has given us ballasts, life jackets, inner tubes and other floatation devices (Hooyah!) to help keep us from sinking: church, the Whole Armor of God, praise and worship music, prayer and meditation. Ephesians 2:19-22 (comparing our bodies to church); Ephesians 6:13-20 (discussing the Armor of God); 1 Chronicles 16:34-35 (on thanking God);  Proverbs 15:29 (“The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.”); and Psalms 119 (on meditation).  But we must know to use them often and proactively, like preventative-care procedures.  Some people sparsely use religion, thinking that baptism and Easters buy them an economy class boarding pass to Heaven, unknowledgeable that faith not merely provides us with a ticket to Heaven but with a first class pass to life now and then.  We do not only study spirituality to avoid some punishment from God at the end of our lives but we routinely explore it to upgrade our experiences, present and future. Galatians 5:22-26 (on the fruit of the Spirit); Koenig, Harold G., Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications, Int’l Scholarly Research Network, vol. 2012 (a review article citing dozens of studies showing a positive relationship between religion/spirituality and coping with adversity, well-being/happiness, optimism, meaning and purpose, self-esteem and a sense of control as well as an inverse relationship with depression, suicide, anxiety, psychotic disorder/schizophrenia, substance abuse, delinquency/crime and marriage instability, among other things).  Spiritual acumen is a means for accessing a great life now, bringing peace, joy and happiness currently.

Some misbelieve religion is antithetical to enjoyment of earthly life so we avoid it, ignore it, run away from it and towards popular entertainment.  But too much evasion of God can cost us not only the next life but this one as well… which can in turn jeopardize our heavenly insurance policies. Id.; Newport, Frank, Gallup, Religion and Wellbeing in the U.S.: Update (Feb. 4, 2022)(citing various reports showing that more church attendance increases satisfaction in life, mental health and happiness and decreases depression).

"Questions of causation aside, researchers over the years have explored a wide-ranging number of possibilities for why religious people have higher wellbeing.  These explanations run the gamut – from the calming, positive influence of belief in a higher power that comes with religion to the positive impact of being part of a close-knit religious community that fosters friendships with other religious people.  Belief in religion can give one a sense of purpose, a belief that life itself has purpose, and belief in an afterlife can mitigate worry about inevitable death.  Religious individuals may have more perceived control over their life, and the structure and regularity of religious rituals could have positive effects.  Research also shows that expressing gratitude reduces anxiety, and expressing gratitude is a core component of many religions."

Being distant from God erodes our mental health and mental illness can kill us and others. Id.; see also, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Press Release, Regularly attending religious services associated with lower risk of deaths of despair (May 6, 2020)(“People who attended religious services at least once a week were significantly less likely to die from ‘deaths of despair,’ including deaths related to suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol poisoning, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.”).  Faith mitigates our mental diseases, healing our minds.  Therefore, we must practice it routinely, like physical exercise, for it to take its designed effect.

You might ask since we need “church,” how often is often enough?  Three times a week for 30 minutes or more like cardiovascular workouts?  Keep in mind that we all have 168 hours in a week, so a few hours for spiritual studies weekly does not sound quite as inconvenient considering God’s generous gift of time each week. Additionally, we can never learn everything there is to know about God so there is no risk of getting bored.  God’s knowledge is more abundant than all of humanity’s understanding, which is much greater than any single human can learn. See e.g., John 21:17 (Peter referring to Christ as knowing all things).  So, there is not really an upper limit to improving one’s spiritual wellbeing.

My recommendation is that we all minimally try to make it to some church lecture or sermon weekly.  I would also suggest that everyone dedicate some time routinely to studying God’s lessons as taught through His Word, this can be right after church and/or throughout the week.  We do this because we learn better by attending the lectures and doing the homework than we would by doing either in isolation.  Finally, praise and worship are some of our most powerful weaponries against negativity.  They incorporate the teachings of the sacred texts and elevate them with the extremely potent power of music. Ezekiel 28:11-19 (music being so moving that Lucifer previously had responsibility over it in Heaven).  If the Bible is our Sword, as taught in Ephesians, then praise and worship are our nukes. Ephesians 6:13-20.  Whether you are in calm seas and especially when you receive a severe storm advisory, my counsel would be to habitually go to church, do your homework and also listen to a ton of praise music.  

Until next time: Namaste (or the spirit in me recognizes and greets the spirit in you)!