For as long as I can remember my family has always been committed to being at church. If the doors were open, we were there. Getting us kids to go some days may have been a little more forceful than others, but for the most part, we enjoyed going. As I grew up, church began to feel less and less like an obligation. I wasn’t attending simply because my parents made me, I had my own desire to be at church. You may ask how I got to that point. Why am I still attending church as a young adult without people pushing me out of the door? I have two reasons that shaped my heart to desire gatherings at my local church.

1. It is the means to my spiritual growth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 explains this very point. Christ gave us pastors and teachers to build us up and equip us to serve. They help grow our faith and build our knowledge of Christ so we can become mature believers standing firm in the truth of the Gospel. Where do you find these mentors? The church.

My spiritual maturity began to grow when I started to take discipleship seriously. I will forever be grateful for the way pastors and other spiritual mentors poured into me and continue to help my spiritual life grow. They showed me how to meditate on Scripture and make it the center of my life. They taught me that prayer isn’t just something you do in the mornings and evenings when you get in and out of bed or before you eat a meal. Prayer is how we acknowledge God in all of our ways (Proverbs 3:6) and it’s how we communicate with Him throughout our days. They taught me how to handle situations with a Biblical mindset when that’s the last thing that was going through my mind. By showing me the importance of the ordinary means of grace they help strengthen my relationship with Christ and His people.

The Christian life was never meant to be done alone and by God’s grace it doesn’t have to be! He has given us a body of believers through the local church to do life with (Acts 2:42-47). Every time we gather, we are given the opportunity to hear the gospel, sing the gospel, and preach the gospel to each other. Where else would we be able to be encouraged like this? The Bible says to “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together”, this is a reminder that if we want to be healthy, mature Christians that grow we need to be involved in our church, which brings me to my second point.

2. My involvement led to my investment which strengthened my faithfulness.

I began serving in the music ministry at the age of twelve and I believe this was one of the biggest impacts on shifting my mindset from church being an item on a check list to something I was deeply devoted to. The difference between involvement and investment is simple; involvement is participation and investment is commitment. Think of it like your favorite TV show. The more you become involved with the show, getting to know the characters and the development of the plot, you become more invested. You look forward to the end of your day where you get to sit down and immerse yourself into the show you’re hooked to. When the main character grieves, you grieve. When they finally solve the problem that’s been building the entire series, you feel that same relief and excitement. This is the same way I began to feel about Fellowship, the more I got involved the more I became invested. The longing I felt for those Sunday and Wednesday gatherings were a direct effect of becoming invested in them. The very thing I was sacrificing time and energy for was fueling me, not draining me. Realizing the purpose and fulfillment I could find in serving the Lord and His people with my talents, energy, and resources made me constantly drawn back to my church. My love for Fellowship didn’t grow by solely participating in the local gathering, it started to grow when I began to sacrifice for it.

Attending church shouldn't just be a familiar custom we did growing up, its a sacred gathering. I am still at Fellowship because, through the help of my parents and many spiritual mentors, my eyes have been opened to the importance of being faithful to a local church. The more I become involved the more I become invested, and the more I become invested the more I see opportunities for spiritual growth.