Real Life Q&A with Camy Tang

January 2007

Q: It’s hard to go to church when so few of my friends go, and my youth group totally sucks. Sometimes I only go because my parents make me. Why do I need to go to church?

A: It’s true, not everybody’s church is great. Newsflash—most churches aren’t perfect, so it’s unlikely you’ll find an ideal church to go to.

However, Jesus wants us to go to church.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And 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.
Hebrews 10:23-25 (TNIV)

The reasons why are in these verses:

(1) Hold unswervingly to your hope. Going to church each week helps you remember Christ more often than if you didn’t.

This doesn’t mean you’ll receive some profound revelation from the sermon each week, but sitting there, worshipping, and praying with your church family puts Jesus in the foremost of your thoughts.

It’s like a car engine. You can’t run forever without filling the tank once in a while.

If you go to church, that’s like filling your spiritual tank every week, which will keep you running smoothly and energetically.

(2) Spur each other on toward love and good deeds. That means doing good deeds, too.

There are tons of ways to serve in your church. You sometimes need to search, but there are lots of things God specifically wants you to do to serve His church. Ask Him, and He’ll answer you with opportunities.

Remember, church isn’t there just to serve you. Give back when you can.

Remember that parable about the talents? The master says to the faithful ones, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” You want Jesus to say that to you when you see Him at the End of Days.

So think how you can serve Him faithfully, and please Him. It’ll not only help your church, it’ll help your own spiritual walk.

(3) Encourage each other, keep your friends accountable, and vice versa.

Just the act of going to church and seeing your church family helps encourage you in your walk, being surrounded by people who believe what you do.

You also never know how you can encourage somebody else through something that happened to you that week, or something you read in your Bible.

And the people around you will help you keep yourself accountable—to make right choices in the next week, to spend time with God. Knowing you’ll see these people the following Sunday makes it harder to hide sins from God or to blithely do what you want instead of what God wants.

They can also encourage you when you’re struggling with something. Your church family is there for you.

So even though your church isn’t perfect—or maybe far from perfect—Jesus is pleased when you attend faithfully.

Seeing as it’s New Years, why not make a new resolution to go to church every Sunday this year?

Do you have a question for Camy? E-mail us!