1. I don't go to church because that's how I was raised.
Some of my earliest memories are of church -- the big, bustling kind where little kids go to coloring class while the parents sit in a dim auditorium full of hundreds of dressed-up people. For a while, church was strangers' houses where the kids played outside while the parents discussed topics way over children's little heads. Or a white building with a room of chairs where the kids sat quietly and didn't take communion while the parents did. Or a home-away-from-home where the kids learned to have fun together and serve (often at the same time), while the parents were nearby serving and having fun in their own way. Yes, church is how I was raised. But that's not why I still go. There are no parents waking me up on Sunday morning and mandating my attendance now. No, the choice is all mine, and I choose, of my own free will, to leave my comfy house, spare a few hours of my precious weekend, and go to church because I have learned to value it for myself.
2. I don't go to church because of the music.
I have very wide musical tastes, and to be honest, Christian Contemporary doesn't typically top the list. I've seen a wide range of worship styles, from a capella hymns, to praise choruses with one guitar, to small ensembles, to full rock bands. I've liked some from each category, and resisted the urge to cover my ears at others. My favorite worship times have almost never been in church. Rarely do I feel a swell of inspiring emotion when I stand behind a pew with a hymnbook or behind a mic with an iPad. Not very many church worship teams are perfect, but...no, I actually can't think of any. But whether I take a fancy to the songs and song leaders or not, I know there's truth worth singing about, and God likes to hear my voice as well as everyone else's. So I go to church and employ my vocal cords behind a pew or a mic just the same, because after all, worship isn't about the music.
3. I don't go to church because of the pastor.
I've never quite fallen asleep in a sermon, but I've sure come close. That's what comes of staying up too late on Saturday night. But then again, I've heard some pretty dull sermons. Pastors come in all shapes and sizes, and no wonder, when their congregations are always sizing them up and shoving them into a mold. There's the slow and methodical cross-referencer, the stand-up comedian moralist, the hellfire and brimstone pulpit-pounder, the Greek and Hebrew scholar, the acronym-happy outliner, the guilt-tripper, and the feel-gooder. Most of them are pretty imperfect humans, a lot like me...wait a second, make that all of them. If I've ever heard a perfect sermon, I can't remember it. In fact, I can't even remember a lot of the one I heard a few hours ago. But I know it was based on the Word of God, and it made me think about a thing or two I'd never thought about, at least for a long time. So I go to church because God gave my pastor a job to do, and he can't do it if I don't show up.
4. I don't go to church because of the people and programs.
People have a way of making church so complicated. I've already discussed the ones who sing too loud or preach too quiet, and then there's a bunch of annoying weirdos who sit in the wrong places, or talk too much, or won't talk to you at all, or have strong false opinions, or don't include you in their little friend circle (I've got my own little friend circle, but still). It's just exhausting. And then they want to stick you in this small group or that, as if sparing time for church once a week isn't enough. Then they're always asking for volunteers to help with this project and that, or money for this fundraiser and that... I only have 168 hours a week, and just forty of them to earn a paycheck with, at that -- seriously. But I go to church and talk to a few of the people I do like and sometimes sign up to do something, because I've got some spiritual gifts worth using. And those people are my brothers and sisters in Christ, after all.
And let us consider one another
in order to stir up love and good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,
as is the manner of some,
but exhorting one another,
and so much the more
as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25