this question is to people who do not go to church but do believe in god?

Question

there is 2 ways to ask this

1. what keeps you from going to church?
Or
2. why do you not go to church

church goers please do not answer this because if your not this person then you dont know their reasons

Answer 1

I get a great deal more out of personal study late at night than I could ever get from church. My family goes, but I usually stay home. We value church for the social benefits, and my wife for the inspiration, but I don't get inspiration from the event, so I don't go.

Answer 2

Actually, I can answear this question because I used to fall into this category: I believe in God but did not attend Church. I've only been in a real Church going on three years now, before I was saved and found Toronto Baptist Church ,praise the Lord!, I used to be the person you're describing here's why:

For as long as I can remember I believed in God. When I was 16 years old I began to question what we were being taught in school, most of all evolution, I thought that surely the King James Bible was the word and that it would have the answears to this. So, I picked up the King James Bible and looked through Genesis I saw no indication of evolution, the Bible says we are created. I chose to believe the Bible instead of what I was taught in school..I believe what God says not man!

I used to ponder all the religions that are out there..I had even gone to a catholic church when I was a child. Although I didn't know allot of what these religions were about I knew that something was going on and it wasn't good. I also wondered about all these "Bibles" that were published..why so many Bibles? It doesn't make sense, if it's God's word then it stands so why the NIV'S, NASB'S, etc? I made the decision, even though I was pretty sure that the King James was the right one, that I was going to stay away from Bibles and Churches until I knew absolutely sure what the truth was!
Except during the hollidays and my high school graduation when I went to a catholic church that's just what I did from the time I was 18 up until the age of 31. I still believed in God all the time that I never attended a Church.

Answer 3

Due to some very emotionally traumatic experiences you might say I developed a fear of people. It would take too much of this page to tell the whole story, but I trust no one apart from Christ. If I trust you it is because I placed our relationship in the Lord's hands. I do believe that corporate worship is important. I believe that fellowship within a congregation is important, but I also believe that the church is the Body of Christ. If I spend my time fellowshipping with 5 of my neighbors as my seventh day set aside for the Lord, it is no different than if I had fellowshipped with 100 or 200 people down the street at a local church. I love going to church, I enjoy every message when I go, infact I miss it much of the time. But it has been over 10 years since I have attended a home church on a regular basis. I find much comfort in just worshipping the Lord and studying the Word of God in my own home.

Answer 4

God is the church and if you know him, then you have the church in you. So many churches now have become big business ventures, with little or no regard for the lost souls who should be first and foremost the mission of the church. There are churches that are so large, you are not a name, but a number in the congregation. Then we have the "sho nuff" saved who now sits on the pew of judgment; judging any and everyone who doesn't measure up to their standards of righteousness!! The lost come seeking, only to find more acceptance in the streets with the so called sinners, than in the church, with the holier than thous!! In the streets, I pretty much know what I am dealing with, and in the church there are many times I have found a flock of wolves in sheep clothing! If church can't, or won't be the safe haven that it should be, then where does one go? I go to my secret closet with just my Higher Power and me, and so far, there hasn't been a time that he didn't meet me there!!!!

Answer 5

Jesus made a whip and violently threw out the leaders and people that had changed the climate of the temple from a house of prayer into a place of money changing and commerce. People that go to church in the US generally speaking, have no clue that they are in trouble. In John 15:2 there are only 2 kinds of worshipers (branches) those that are working on being clean by the Word and those that are withered and will be cut out and burned in the unquenchable fire. Kinda makes you want to get real in my opinion- but Christians here have little idea of what the Bible says. They just blindly follow traditions. Wake up! Judgement Day is real.

Answer 6

Church or temple worship has evolved over a time when people are unaware of the nuances of worship, religion etc. To channelize human emotions towards the love for divine, congregational worship started. The vibration of a church is different from a home. In the home also we can pray. But majority of the worldly people can not get sufficient concentration in the homely atmosphere since there will be lot of diversion. Hence to discipline the mind, church going has evolved. Sundays have been selected for mass so that more people can gather and hear religious versions from the bible and hear sermons and divine music etc. For the time they attend the church, they maintain silence and pray silently. Hence the total spiritual effect will be more in a church than in a home. People unaware of this, desist going to the church. Some are critics of church worship, some do not relish the preachers sermon etc. It would be better to go to church if we are alian to prayers etc.

Answer 7

1) I live in the Mountains above San Bernadino ,Ca.,before that I went to Calvary Chapel for many years and I can't get used to anyother church.There's one 10 miles down the road but hey...
2)I have a degree from Moody Bible Institute,I read the scriptures daily,I am an avid listener to the late ,great J. Vernon McGee,and Chuck Smith a few others(Gene Scott was my guy in the 70s and 80s).I taught home fellowships for several years.I answer on here almost daily.But I work between 50 and 55 hrs a week and I'm bushed.Except for Paul's admonishment to "gather together.." I don't see the real need to especially.I stay in fellowship with the Lord and what's going on.
Maybe we should start a Calvary Chapel up here?
FYI I'm a 54 year old truck driver who wears shorts and t-shirts 365 days a year.Ex surfer(too old and bad knee)outdoorsman.

Answer 8

I don't go to church. I'm returning to Christianity after some time away and for some reason I just can't get back into going to church. I think part of it is that my way of thinking about spirituality has changed so much and now I'm not really sure what I should do next as far as organized worship goes. But I guess I should confess to a little laziness, too.

Answer 9

I do not like organized religions. They may have started out as a really good thing, something to keep fellow believers in whatever subject together, but it seems to me that all it is now is a lot of "to-do" over not much of anything. Too many rules and rituals and traditions to have to worry about, too many pushy and money hungry people...it has become a way to make money, its not about what it should be for the most part. I am not saying all are like this, just most of the ones i have been to.

I have been made to go to church all my life, and so i do know what i am talking about...

Answer 10

The older bibles, and some modern ones, say that we should 'know thy God as thyself', so my question is, why do I have to believe in that which is obvious? When you can reach out and touch something: when you know that something exists, then belief is not necessary. You equate belief with faith because you have not reached out and found god to be really in our world. To believe is to accept the word of some authority that God is real, probably because you are to busy working or watching TV.
God is everything and everywhere, so why do I have to go to some special building on some special day to worship God when God is in my life 24/7?