Yahoo Answers Spiritual Questions

During a little google search this morning I stumbled upon a page within the "Yahoo! Answers" website. Have you ever heard of it? Apparently you can ask a question and other people see it and can respond with their answer. It goes a step further where people can vote on who's answer they think is best. Anyways, the page I came across was from a girl complaining that her mom was overly Christian and always made her feel guilty if she didn't come to church every week.

"...I attend church every once in a while with my parents, but most of the time I am too tired to wake up so early in the morning after a long school week. (it's not like there aren't any sermons on tv in the mornings anyway)..."

It seemed relevant to me to analyze this a little bit, not to pick on this girl, but to consider why people don't place value on gathering to worship on the Lord's day, even when they call themselves Christians. Based on her comments, sleeping is her priority. My assumption is that her main motivation for going to church is to please her mom. She apparently thinks that going to church is primarily about hearing a good sermon, so why can't she replace going to church with simply watching a preacher on t.v? Seems reasonable if that is what she thinks the point of church is.

The best answer chosen by voters was actually better than I expected, but still not, in my opinion, the best response to this girl's issue.

"You can't get fellowship from the tv though. It is good for you to be part of a congregation and to be active in the church. The church is the body of Christ and you got to work together with other Christians, and that probably would involve being part of a congregation. So you should go to church with your mom. It will be good for you. "

Yes the fellowship element is a key part of being a part of the body of Christ, but reasoning that "It will be good for you," probably won't go over well with this person. Isn't that what parents tell their kids when they don't want to eat their vegetables?

I see two main issues here. On the one hand, this girl doesn't get what worship and being the church is all about. She's in the same boat as plenty of other church-goers, especially young people. On the other hand, her mom (according to the daughter) is an overbearing "born-again" Christian who is trying to use guilt to motivate her daughter to go to church. It doesn't help that the mom freaks her daughter out with her long prayers and trying to feel God's presence.

In regards to the first issue, church gatherings on Sunday are not about hearing a good speech from the preacher. It's about participating in fellowship, making music to the Lord, hearing God's word and responding to it, taking communion (you can't do that over the t.v.), and prayer. When worship is understood and experienced in that way, I think you have less of a chance of people thinking that they can replace corporate worship with watching a preacher on t.v. The other important element is that people need to feel connected or welcome, otherwise they are not going to experience the fellowship element or care to keep gathering with a particular group of people. I was made aware of a visitor being relatively ignored at my church recently and it made me sad that this was their experience. Be intentional about welcoming visitors or talking to those who are not interacting with others.

In response to how this girls' mom is handling the situation, where does the bible encourage using guilt to get people to gather with the body of Christ? Forcing her to go to church like this is only going to make her that much more of a spectator rather than a participating worshiper. Besides, Jesus idea of the church is not just that a bunch of people would show up every week on a Sunday morning, go through the motions and give generously so that the cycle can continue. This girl's mom ought to be more concerned with her daughter becoming a disciple. Church leaders and members of congregations should be more concerned with this too. Church health is not measured by attendance numbers, and yet that is what much of our church-culture is focused on these days.