Why should Protestants go to Church?
A little while ago I was commenting on a friend’s blog where we were discussing the practice of church attendance on Sundays. Given that a lot of Protestants comment on his blog, I posed the following question to all those commenting:
What actually is the Protestant motivation for going to church on Sunday?
Now, this might seem like a silly question, but I asked it due to a certain train of thought that I had noticed during my time in the Protestant world. It’s a train of thought that I feel leads to unavoidable, awkward conclusions…
The Reasons
You see, I would suggest that there isn’t a very good answer to the above question from within the typical theological framework of many Protestant congregations. Below I give some of the possible answers to this question, followed by a rebuttal which I have heard other Protestants sometimes give.
Reason #1: “For Fellowship”
Rebuttal: “Why do I need to go to a church building for that? Why does it have to be on a Sunday? The Bible doesn’t say I have to. I can get fellowship just by hanging out with my Christian friends during the week. Also, if I just fellowship with my friends then I get to avoid some of the annoying weirdos from the church”
Reason #2: “To be taught the Scriptures”
Rebuttal: “The preacher locally is a bit hit-and-miss. John Piper is a better preacher than my pastor. I much prefer to get one of his DVDs and watch it at home.”
Reason #3: “To worship God”
Rebuttal: “I can worship God anywhere! I don’t need to do it in a church building. Also, the worship band where I used to go was getting rather stale. I much prefer to sing along to the latest ‘Hillsong United’ CD in my car.”
Reason #4: “To receive Holy Communion”
Rebuttal: “Why can’t I just bless the bread and wine myself? Why do I have to go to Bible College to do that? What makes my pastor so special?”
It is my contention that, in general, Protestantism doesn’t actually give the Protestant Christian a very convincing reason to attend church on Sunday. Sure, reasons can be put forward, but I don’t think they’re very compelling from within most Protestant theological frameworks. I would blame this on many things, but especially the general lack of sacramental theology, the rise in ecclesial consumerism in recent years, as well as the individualism which naturally comes from Sola Scriptura.
Catholic Reasons
But how would a Catholic answer this question though? Well, a Catholic could submit many of the answers given above, but I think that Catholics have two reasons which are far more decisive, at least for us:
1. The Church tells us to attend Mass. In fact, it’s one of the the Five precepts of the Church. We believe that the Church has the authority to instruct us.
2. We go to receive Jesus’s gift to the Church, the Eucharist. This is not something I can do for myself in my living room with a bread roll and a glass of Merlot.
Good community, good music and good homilies are all desirable in a local Catholic parish, but these are not ultimately my reasons for going to Church on Sunday. I go to receive the grace which is found in the Eucharist. The Church which Christ founded posses the wisdom to urge me not stand aloof, but to come and receive this gift, this medicine of immortality.
I was raised Catholic, as you probably know. When I was really converted to follow Jesus at 21, it was at an Assembly of God church, though that was just the location. It wasn’t at a service or anything. Not knowing what to do, I attended the AG church. I learned that Protestants go by the Bible only, so naturally I expected to read about Sunday school, Sunday morning services with three songs, an offering, and a sermon, “trade union” on Sunday evenings and a Bible study or business meeting on Wednesday nights. It was amazing to me when I found out it’s not in there. What a rollicking journey ensued!
St. Justin Martyr is not impressed! 😉
This took you long enough!
There are several expressions of the Protestant church whose liturgy is very similar to that of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Everything in the Anglican church service moves towards the table, which is the highlight of the gathering. I think the answers you give for Catholics is just as valid for these Protestant expressions.
The others? Well, I do think there are lots of reasons one should voluntarily attend a weekly gathering of believers. There might not be very authoritative and compelling reasons to attend any particular protestant church.
Yeah, sorry, life has been “interesting”.
There’s definitely some truth in this, which is why I made sure I did use words like “most” and “typical” throughout the post.
Having said that, even within the Anglican Communion there are radical differences between congregations. During my time at an Anglican congregation we’d have communion every couple of months and I never heard a single sermon on the subject. I don’t think “Celebrating the Eucharist” would have been an especially compelling argument for most of the members of the congregation.
Likewise, while I was back in England a couple of weeks ago and I went to an Anglican parish. They had an extremely short (maybe ten minutes or so?) Communion Service after the main “Family Service” ended. It was attended by a fraction of the congregation. Clearly not much of a priority…
Although parts of the Anglican Communion have the kind of outlook you describe, I would say that they are in the extreme minority and honestly I don’t think they’re going to last much longer in the Anglican Communion. I think these congregations are either going to die out, convert to Eastern Orthodoxy or join the Anglican Ordinariate setup by Pope Benedict.
I’m not even making the case for a particular Protestant denomination. I just think that the framework of Protestant theology just doesn’t give a compelling reason for Sunday church attendance. For example, can you think of any good counter-rebuttals to those given in the post?
I think most evangelicals I’ve known would quote Heb. 10:25 about not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Luther stated pretty clearly that the most important thing about Lutheran services was the preaching. It was the reason they were together.
I’m not really Protestant in doctrine myself, so I won’t defend that other than to say it would have been the one response I would have expected when I was attending evangelical churches. Hebrews 10:25 and to “hear God’s Word.”
That’s definitely the best Scriptural defense, for sure. However, it doesn’t say that anything about the day of the week or what happens at this gathering (see Rebuttal #1). I’ve heard people try and say that Hebrews just means that we need to have other Christians in our lives.
To give Luther his credit, I’d say he spoke regularly about word and sacrament, but yeah, the focus of Protestant liturgy from the Reformation onwards was certainly more on the sermon rather than sacrament. That’s why Protestants invented pews, to have somewhere to sit, since the main purpose of church services was to hear preaching.
This article was shared on Facebook and a friend-of-a-friend posted a response which raised some really good responses to some of the things I wrote.
I’d like to quote his response in entirety here and then respond to it in a separate comment:
What would you say is your basis of this assumption? Would you say this is compatible with Sola Scriptura?
I’d completely agree, but in what way? Is the grace in the fellowship? The worship?
What model do you think is set forth in Scripture?
In the First Century, where would one go for “good teaching and good fellowship elsewhere”? I would suggest that many of these problems are problems for modern Protestantism, requiring the printing press, music CDs and the Internet.
I think there are some stumbling blocks here. The first is psychological. Who likes to be disciplined?! If local church attendance means the potential of church discipline, I’m not going to be especially motivated to join a congregation!
But let’s assume that I can see the value in discipline. Does that really necessitate that I join a congregation? Couldn’t I just give a variation of Rebuttal #1? “I have close, wise Christian friends whom I trust. They are far better placed to speak to me and guide me when I get off-track rather than some random pastor”
This then feeds into the last problem, which relates to the Protestant conception of authority. What is the basis of Pastor Bob’s authority? Who gave it to him? Did he get it purely by virtue of going to Bible College? What happens if I disagree with Pastor Bob? It’s just his opinion, after all. I can just move to the congregation down the street who sees more eye-to-eye with me.