Do you think it’s a sin not to go to church?<\/a>” there are things done in church services that cannot be done individually. The simple fact is that you can’t reach heaven by refusing to follow God’s commands.<\/p>\nIsn’t it ironic that their excuse for not attending is that others might think less of them because they had not been attending? What circular reasoning! “I’m not going to give up lying because people who tell the truth will look down on me because I lied.” Actually, what they are saying is that they refuse to change because other people are coming to the logical conclusion that they are not faithful Christians; yet they blame the people who think instead of saying I need to change my behavior so that it is no longer true.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what has happened in the past, but given the unsound reasoning they are using in this matter, it causes me to wonder if the “church politics” of the past were not matters where they were in the wrong but they didn’t want others mentioning it.<\/p>\n
I suspect that there is no end of excuses that they could offer. Showing them the fallacy of this one will only lead to bringing up some other one. The best thing that you can do is set an example. Go to services regularly and faithfully, whether they go or not. There are going to be times when they will suggest not going for one reason or another (after all, you will be making their excuses look foolish since little or nothing stops you from attending) and these become opportunities to tell them that you have a prior engagement with the Lord. You can then ask them if they would join you because you really like to have them come along. Eventually, your persistence will make inroads with them. As Paul told Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine<\/em>” (I Timothy 4:12-13).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: I have a question to ask you that I do not know how to fully answer.\u00a0 My family members are not convinced that going to church as a family is the best thing for the family. I believe that going to church is important especially as a family, but they believe that everything taught…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[356,608,713],"class_list":["post-17152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-attendance","tag-excuses","tag-judging-others"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36107,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-visit-my-grandfathers-church-when-we-are-there-even-though-we-left-that-denomination-for-the-true-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":17152,"position":0},"title":"Should we visit my grandfather’s church when we are there even though we left that denomination for the true church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, Okay, we have been in the Lord's church for less than a year. My husband, our little son and I are going to visit my grandma and my mother for my son's birthday. We will be there for almost two weeks and one of the days we will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-family-says-i-cant-attend-a-church-of-christ-until-after-i-get-engaged\/","url_meta":{"origin":17152,"position":1},"title":"My family says I can’t attend a church of Christ until after I get engaged","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am currently attending a Baptist church with my family, but I am dating someone who attends a church of Christ. We have been dating for some time now, and we have studied together a lot. We agree on several things that we used not to, such as once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42981,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-mother-wont-let-me-change-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":17152,"position":2},"title":"My mother won’t let me change churches","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am 16 years old and I don't want to attend the same church as my family does. For a long time, I've wanted to change churches for my own personal reasons, but after going to this camp, I feel like God wants me to go to this certain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53895,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-son-is-no-longer-attending-church-so-is-it-wrong-to-pick-up-my-grandchildren\/","url_meta":{"origin":17152,"position":3},"title":"My son is no longer attending church, so is it wrong to pick up my grandchildren?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If my son is baptized but not attending, and my daughter-in-law is not baptized, is it wrong to pick up my grandchildren? Answer: Be careful not to blame kids for their parents' sins. You seem to be mixing your son's disobedience as if it was also your grandchildren's.\u00a0 Each\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81445,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-cut-ties-with-family-members-who-are-not-members-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":17152,"position":4},"title":"Do We Cut Ties with Family Members Who Are Not Members of the Church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Sir, I have a question that maybe you can help me to understand. I attend a Church of Christ, and in my youngest daughter's Bible class, she is being told we must cut off contact with family members who are not members of the church. I have two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10532,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-handle-attending-services-when-there-are-family-outings-planned\/","url_meta":{"origin":17152,"position":5},"title":"How do I handle attending services when there are family outings planned?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am wondering how to handle getting to church in various situations. One is when my husband, who is not a Christian, has family functions that we are all expected to attend, i.e.: Easter Sunday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. My husband usually says I can't go to church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}