I skipped going to church this past Sunday. This is actually pretty rare for me since I’ve been a consistent churchgoer for at least twenty-five years.
My twenty-three year old son was visiting and needed to rest, and my husband had a cold. Of course I could have gone to church alone. I’ve certainly done it before. Instead, I opted to stay home, relax and do some extended bible reading. In doing that, it got me to thinking. Why do we attend church anyway? I realize that this subject can easily turn into an entire book (several have been written). So I want to keep this as simple and applicable as possible.
I began by doing a scripture search. Here’s some of what I found.
When you become a Christian, you are called into a relationship with God. Take a look at three scriptures that show us that.
1 Corinthians 1:9
“God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
” Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:8
” My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” Psalms 27:8 NLT
But according to scripture, we are to have fellowship/relationship with both God and other Christians.
^“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3
“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 10:24-25
So there you have it, going to church is not just about you. Did you ever think about that? It’s about our relationship to God (which goes both ways) and relationship to others.
In a nutshell, going to church puts our focus on our relationship to God and to others.
There are many, many more great reasons to go to church, but here are my top three.
Go to church because:

1. The Bible says to
2. It puts your focus on God
3. You will encourage others and others will encourage you

Bonus: You may learn something!
Thanks for reading. Hope it inspires you to a closer relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Love, Beckie
P.S.
I found a really neat article called, 99 Reasons You Should Go To Church This Weekend:
http://hillsong.com/blogs/collected/2014/september/99-reasons-you-should-go-to-church-this-weekend#.VOu0rPnF98E