{"id":750,"date":"2023-07-20T19:18:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T07:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/?p=750"},"modified":"2023-07-20T19:26:53","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T07:26:53","slug":"weekly-church-attendance-a-spiritual-practice-a-habit-or-an-obligation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/2023\/07\/20\/weekly-church-attendance-a-spiritual-practice-a-habit-or-an-obligation\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Church Attendance – a spiritual practice, a habit, or an obligation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have attended Sunday church services weekly since before I could walk. It has been the one almost unbroken consistency in my life, only surpassed by eating and sleeping. So it comes as a stark break from my regular pattern, when for two months recently I didn’t attended any Sunday services. There is a reason for this change that has nothing to do with the church or the people, but is not the topic of this post. What I want to explore is why I attend church at all. Is church attendance a Spiritual Practice? Have I been attending purely out of habit? Have I done it out of a perceived obligation?<\/p>\n

Hopefully, deconstructing my reasons and motives will help me be more honest about my motives and more present to my actions.<\/p>\n

What is the value of regular church attendance?<\/p>\n

After 60+ years of attending church every Sunday, it is quite a change to deliberately not go to church. It raises the question “Why do I go to church regularly?” The answers to that question definitely depend on who is being asked:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Because it is expected. (conformity)<\/li>\n
  2. Out of loyalty to the local church. (duty\/obligation)<\/li>\n
  3. Because the Bible says we “should not forsake meeting together”. (legalism\/compliance)<\/li>\n
  4. For spiritual growth. (spiritual)<\/li>\n
  5. For worship. (spiritual)<\/li>\n
  6. For fellowship. (social)<\/li>\n
  7. It’s a deliberately chosen spiritual practice. (spiritual)<\/li>\n
  8. It’s what I’ve always done. (habit)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    My primary reason is #6. In all honesty, it is my weekly social club meeting. What is your reason for attending church? If you have a different reason for attending (or not attending), put it in the comments below.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    I have attended Sunday church services weekly since before I could walk. It has been the one almost unbroken consistency in my life, only surpassed by eating and sleeping. So it comes as a stark break from my regular pattern, …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[84,85],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deconstruction","category-practice","tag-church-attendnce","tag-deconstruction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}