That question is asked by many people today. In an era where all organizations are looked at with a critical eye church is no exception. And there’s good reason that many see being part of a church as counterproductive to their Christian life. But while we tend to believe we are more enlightened than those who came before us we find they dealt with similar attitudes when it came to organized religion.
Well known author C.S. Lewis (1989-1963) writes about the need for church (not a building but a known gathering of believers in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior) in the book of Lewis excerpts called The Business of Heaven.* “The first step is to recognize the fact that your moods change. The next step is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?
If Easter has renewed your passion for being a disciple of Jesus Christ then why not feed the fire by making a commitment to active involvement in His church? Don’t be one of those whose fire goes out not by heated argument but by drifting away from the fire of gathered believers.
*The Business of Heaven Daily Readings from C.S. Lewis A Harvest Book