If God is everywhere what difference does it make if we go to church or not? Becky Peacock tackles this age old question head on by encouraging Christian parents to see the contribution their youth and children can make in their churches
It’s Sunday morning. It’s been a busy week. You’re bone-tired and craving that morning lie-in. Or perhaps it’s your teenager who you’re struggling to drag out of bed. Maybe your threenager is refusing to put on their socks, or your pre-teen is in the middle of an episode or is desperate to go to that party or match instead. We all know the struggle! Inevitably the question comes…“Why do we have to go to church if God is everywhere anyway?!”
Well firstly, great job for raising a mini theologian who knows that God isn’t just with him at church! But secondly, I wonder how you’ve answered them. If church-going has been part of your family’s routine for a while, then you’ve probably tackled this question more times than you can count – maybe previously you’ve said something like…
- “Because it’s good for you…
- Because the Bible tells us to…
- Because God wants to meet with you there…
- Because you’ll enjoy it when you get there…
- Because people will miss you if you don’t go…
- or simply because that’s what we do and while you live in my house you follow my rules!”
Whilst probably true, there is something slightly unsatisfying about those answers. I’ve used some with my kids and have had others said to me when I was a kid! But I wonder whether in the desperate moment of trying to get out of the door on a Sunday morning we’ve focused on the outward and missed their hearts.
God is everywhere
Theologians use the term “omnipresent” to explain how God is not limited by time or space, he isn’t sitting in the cosmos ready for any rocket ship to crash into him at any moment. And he isn’t waiting at the front of church for us to come and admire Him there, like a painting in a gallery or a gorilla at the zoo. God is equally present everywhere, at all times, with all of his being, in all places at once, through all time! That’s pretty incredible!
Hebrews shows us that the temptation to give up gathering together is not new, and it is not good for us
It’s actually pretty hard to get our minds around because nothing else in all creation is omnipresent. Think about it! It doesn’t help our kids build a robust theology of God’s omnipresence when they’ve heard us pray things like “God, we welcome you here today” like he’s only just arrived. Or when they hear an invitation to “come to the front” for a special moment with God during communion or ministry, as if God is more present at the front of church than anywhere else! I wonder whether we have accidentally been communicating to our children that God isn’t actually omnipresent after all.
Sometimes we experience a more intense presence of God in a particular moment and when we do, enjoy it! But an absence of that feeling doesn’t mean that God is absent. King David asks “where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7) and when God speaks to Jeremiah he asks “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:24). King Solomon exclaims, “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27). Scripture is clear, God is omnipresent!
So, your kids are right, God is just as much with them at the football game, or in their bedroom, as he is in the pews on a Sunday morning - in that case, why should we go to church?
Well we could ask the same question about some of our other regular family jaunts:
- Why go to the cinema when you can watch the movie at home?
- Why go to the mall when you can just shop online?
- Why go to school when you can study at home?
A world of convenience and consumerism
The very fact that those questions can be asked, and the alternative can be offered, shows what an individualistic culture of convenience we’ve become accustomed to. But that is not how God made us. We were created for community; we were called as a people, not just as individuals. When sin entered the world, so did the temptation to prefer ourselves rather than others, and so did our preference for laziness.
We’d probably all agree that, whilst the option of staying home seems appealing when we’re tired, there is something more that we get from these activities when we gather with others for a shared in-person experience. All of those places are fundamentally social, even church. However, church is not simply about me as the consumer (unlike the other places), church is as much about what I can bring as it is about what I can receive.
If we want to answer our children wisely when their selfishness or laziness rears its head, then we need to speak to their hearts and not their behaviour
It might seem easy for our children to fall into the consumer category but our churches need them! Don’t let them forget that! And let’s not forget it too. We need to make sure that there is space not just for them to learn and receive but for them to speak up, step out, and spur on.
Children spur us on with their energy and passion. Children encourage us in faith when they take God at his word, ask questions we’re all wondering, and when they express their heart to God in profoundly authentic prayers.
Children, we need you at our churches, not just for what you will learn from us but for what we will learn from you. We need you to speak up, to pray out, to laugh and cry and dance and sing. We need you to lead us, we need you to learn with us, we need you to show up and not just for what it looks like, but for our hearts and for your hearts too.
If we want to answer our children wisely when their selfishness or laziness rears its head, then we need to speak to their hearts and not their behaviour.
Read more:
Answering children’s questions: Who made God?
Answering your child’s questions: What’s the point of praying? Because God doesn’t change
Answering your child’s questions: Why is God a Father?
The writer of the Hebrews shows us how to do this: After unpacking all the goodness of the gospel, and the confidence we have of approaching God personally now thanks to Christ’s sacrifice, he then underlines that this relationship with God is not supposed to be purely lived out in isolation from other Christians. He says…
“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another - and all the more as you see the day approaching.” (Heb 10:24-25)
Can you be a Christian without going to church? Absolutely! But should you be a Christian and not go to church? Absolutely not! Hebrews shows us that the temptation to give up gathering together is not new, and it is not good for us.
Together, we are the bride of Christ. Let’s not forget that church is not about me, and it’s not about you. It’s about Jesus and his glory here in the midst of this messy consumer-driven individualistic lazy world.
