I've been more aware of a problem in my home church, and I'm sure this is true of many churches. We have a significant number of people who seem to attend only when the don't have something better to do. There are often excuses like "oh, we have some friends from out of town," or "I was tired from working all night," or "we're going out of town for the weekend." It seems like something always comes up that takes precedence over attending church.
Now I know that church isn't a requirement for Salvation or a relationship with God. But the Bible is also very clear in its examples of believers meeting together for worship, fellowship, and group study. Just about everyone of importance in both the Old and New Testaments can be found in regular temple or other worship activities. There is nowhere in the Bible that gives us an example of anyone who survives without regular contact with other believers.
Where is our love of God? Where is our desire for that relationship? What other business or personal relationship would survive sporadic contact and insincere communication? How many of our spouses or significant others would we be close with if we gave them a mere fraction of our time and were always pushing them off for other activities?
Why would we expect a relationship with God to be any different?
God is very patient and forgiving to my eternal thanks. But I have to wonder what role He plays in some people's lives when they put other things ahead of Him.
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