Here’s some challenging thoughts on what is the purpose of going to church every week.

I had a vulnerable moment before the Lord the other day. I want to believe anything we do about the Bible or the things of God would be a good thing. However, even religious stuff can become evil.
Wow. That sounds too strong even saying that. But I can’t shake what the Lord showed me and I will attempt to explain it to you.
The Lord revealed to me that it is easy for a church or a pastor to become a drug dealer. Not that we sell narcotics, but that we might sell a spiritual “high.” You see, the First Church of Moses became guilty of illegally dealing spiritual substances. This was Jesus’s number 1 opposing force when He came. They did not want people to get to Him—they wanted the crowds to come to them instead.

How church can become a spiritual “high”

You see, it is hard for me to write this. I believe strongly in what we experience in Pentecostal and Apostolic churches. The moves of God are unlike anything else on earth. I love nothing better than to be immersed in the cloud of His presence.
People come into a Spirit-filled worship service and feel something there they feel nowhere else. They might ask us, “What is this I feel? What is going on here?” And meaning well, I might say, “If you like what you feel here, you need to come back next week.” At first glance, that seems like the right thing to say. However, that is where I could become a “dealer” instead of a shepherd.
You see, to get a high from drugs, you have to keep coming back to your supplier. Do I want our church to be the only place in town where people can go to get a “fix” in the presence of God? Well, yeah. Maybe. But I shouldn’t think like that.
Using the uniqueness of God’s Spirit as a “customer retention program” is evil. You see, the Pharisees and other religious professionals in the first century had managed to take the things of God and patent them in such a way that the crowds were dependent on those men. Jesus said one of their flaws was that they made people do things their own way, binding them with rules that were hard to keep. We could be limiting them from access.

What is the purpose of going to church?

When I was a teen, I had the opportunity to go snorkeling in the waters around St. Croix Island in the Caribbean Sea. The corals, underwater wildlife, and aquatic universe were so amazing to me, I can remember it all as if it were yesterday. Last year, I wanted my own children to experience some of those things I had seen.
We planned our vacation for somewhere with good snorkeling. Then I grew disappointed as I began to learn the truth. The mainland US has no good snorkeling scenery like I had seen in my youth. So, I googled to find out where the best snorkeling would be. The answer? St. Croix. Okay, maybe a few other places were good, too, but they all were off the mainland and required airplane travel. Our vacation budget did not include airfare. So, we found a secluded beach in the Gulf and enjoyed what we could.
Still, I want to take them to Buck Island someday or take them scuba diving and let them experience this whole new way of life. Sadly, what I will be doing at that point though is introducing them to an experience they cannot repeat without expensive equipment, lots of money, and travel to an exotic location.
What does that have to do with our question of what is the purpose of going to church? Many church services are scuba-diving adventures. People come and enjoy what they experience there, but can only access that experience by returning to the same atmosphere. They cannot even come to the same building on a Thursday morning or Monday afternoon and experience what they get on Sunday because it takes the right mix of music, preaching, and other worshippers to achieve that “high.”
No one will scuba dive enough until they suddenly adapt to the underwater world. They will be constantly dependent on unnatural accommodations to breathe in an unnatural atmosphere, flippers to move in this foreign environment, and a mask to see into a world that would otherwise be blurry. Is your church a dive trip? Is it a limited experience for the users, no matter how amazing they feel while there?

Jesus introduced a new biosphere, not an experience

While we have great experiences in the Pentecostal movement, we have to remember that Jesus did not come to just give an experience. He came to bring us into a new biosphere: the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is even better than the kingdom of the sea. You do not need special gear (steeples, electric guitars, pew chairs, fog & lights) to experience this Kingdom.
You have to die and leave the human kingdom to enter the Kingdom of God (See John 3:1-8; Romans 6:3-14; Galatians 2:20). If I love corals, sea anemone, and octopuses so much, I should become a fish. Then I would never have to leave the kingdom of the sea. This is what I also must give others.
I am not here to get repeat customers who want to subscribe to a spiritual experience. I am here to help others become Kingdom citizens. We, as spiritual influencers, are not spiritual tour guides. We are in Heaven’s birthing ward. We help bring people from darkness to light. We do not just shine it on them for two or three services a week—that is not the purpose of going to church.
We must help people find a deep enough experience in the Lord that they can live in His atmosphere every day. Making them depend on us is manipulating the New Covenant the way the Pharisees did the old one. Yes, we have to teach them how to swim and show them to avoid the hazards, but we release them into the waters of a fresh new life.

I am responsible to help others live in the Kingdom

I realize I have mixed metaphors here. I went from talking about drugs getting people high to doing scuba diving. Please do not mix the two (in fact, I would never do the first and really don’t like the risk of second). Let’s go back to that idea of a drug dealer. It is not that we intend to make people dependent on us. It is a sin we commit by carelessness.

How do we keep people from becoming addicted to “great church” instead of dwelling in the new Kingdom reality? By helping them leave the old atmosphere. Have you ever pulled a fish out of water? It cannot survive. Fish drown in the air.
If I am encouraging people to experience the wonders of the heavenly realm, I must also invite them to become Kingdom citizens. When they are born into the Kingdom of Light, they must leave the Kingdom of Darkness or they will die. I have seen people come and swim in the Spirit week after week but live in darkness all week long. It might last for a while, but if they do not leave the old life behind, all the spiritual highs in the world will not save them. They plunge back into darker darkness than they knew before.

What is the purpose of going to church?

I will not be a spiritual drug dealer. I will not just entertain people with the presence of the Lord. I will help them be born into the Kingdom and lead them to leave behind the life of darkness. I will teach them to pray at home until they are having powerful spiritual experiences of their own. I will teach them to study the map and constitution of the Kingdom (Bible) so they do not struggle as perpetual tourists who cannot find their way back.
Weekly church services help us grow stronger, show us our flaws, and awaken us to dangers. However, they cannot become our main point of access to spiritual things. We have to learn how to “swim” in this new life daily. If I am a dealer who makes my students depend on me for life, I am not really a teacher but a manipulator. I must release people into the new dimension that the Lord has for them.
As a pastor, I must help others live in this new dimension by:

• Inviting them into the Kingdom through New Birth (as in Acts 2:38),
• Preaching against sin and not babying wrong behavior,
• Teaching ALL that Jesus commanded us (as with the DiscipleMaker series),
• Challenging believers in small-groups and asking about their growth,
• Leading them to have a Spirit outpouring at home, as well as at church, and
• Watching over and praying for the flock the Lord has given me.

I will be held to account before the Lord for my influence in these people’s lives and if I let them drown or showed them the true way in the Kingdom. By the way, you cannot “go to church.” You are the church. It is not an event but an atmosphere to live in. How about you? Are you swimming all week or just on Sundays?

What are some ways you help people to move from a church-only experience to a complete immersion in the things of the Spirit? Please respond below.