If you asked people as they came out of a church door why they attended church, you would get some varied answers. Many of them would tell you what they thought you expected to hear: that they are Christians and attend church to worship God together. Unfortunately some of them, if truth were to be told, attend church in order to please their husband or wife, because it looks good in the community, or, if they are minors, because their parents make them.
That God expects us to attend church is made very clear in the Bible. God’s people were always expected to worship their Maker. Countless verses in the Old Testament attest to this. In Psalm 122, even King David said “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” The early Christian church met together regularly, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ [a]doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42.) We are admonished by Paul in Hebrews 10:25 not to forsake “the assembling together of ourselves as is the manner of some.” Scripture after scripture in both the Old and New Testaments stresses the importance of believers gathering together to worship the Almighty. And for good reason.
Attendance at church is a recharging opportunity that is different from praying and worshiping God alone. The feeling of camaraderie, of being with others who believe as we do and who love The One that we love, to lift our voice with theirs in a swell of praise to Him lifts us up and prepares us to face whatever the world might sling at us in the next few days. And those who worship with us become our family in God. We rejoice with them, we help them in time of need, we mourn with them when tragedy strikes them.
But there are other reasons to attend church and to have a group of believers who pray for you when you need God’s help. Science, which many wrongly scoff is the antithesis of religion, actually proves that prayer works. A study of 393 cardiac patients was done at San Francisco General Hospital. Half of them were prayed for by strangers who only knew them by name. Those patients had fewer complications, fewer cases of pneumonia, needed fewer drugs, got better quicker, and left the hospital earlier than those who had not been prayed for.
Duke University’s Harold G. Koenig, M.D., Director of Duke’s Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health, reports that studies have shown that when people are prayed for it keeps them from getting sick. And those who are sick and are prayed for get well more quickly. It is not even necessary for them to know that they are being prayed for.
A study published in the Southern Medical Journal shows that prayer has a remarkable effect on patients with hearing and visual deficiencies. After sessions of prayer, these patients demonstrated improved hearing and sight.
A study in California found that patients with advanced cases of AIDS who were prayed for survived in greater numbers, were less sick, and recovered more quickly than those who were not prayed for.
Another study was done on women undergoing in vitro fertilization. The half who were prayed for had better pregnancy rates than those who were not prayed for, even though the women were not informed anyone was praying for them.
But beyond the healing effects of prayer, more and more medical research from leading U.S. hospitals and universities show that a belief in God is just plain good for you. It makes you happier, healthier, and helps you live longer.
In 2006, the University of Texas conducted research on population and discovered that the more often an individual goes to church, the longer he or she lives.
Dr. Keonig of Duke University agrees with their findings, explaining:
“The benefits of devout religious practice, particularly involvement in a faith community and religious commitment, are that people cope better. In general, they cope with stress better, they experience greater well-being because they have more hope, they’re more optimistic, they experience less depression, less anxiety, and they commit suicide less often. They have stronger immune systems, lower blood pressure, and probably better cardiovascular functioning.”
One study found that those who attend church at least once a week live about seven years longer than those who never attend. Another study, published in PLOS One, found that regular church attendance so reduced the body’s stress responses that worshippers were 55% less -likely to die during the study’s 18 year follow-up period than people who did not attend services, whether at a church, a temple, or a mosque.
A Dartmouth Medical School study followed older patients who were undergoing open heart surgery. Those who said that they had no personal religious beliefs and didn’t have an organized group of believers to support them were three times more likely to die within six months of the procedure than those who had religious support.
At a 1996 meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians, over half of the doctors agreed that personal religious faith could help the healing process.
Duke University’s Dr. Koenig concludes that over 1, 500 reputable medical studies conclude that people who are more religious and pray more often live longer, healthier lives.
So the next Sunday morning when your alarm goes off and you are tempted to just roll over and go back to sleep, remember that going to church could keep you healthy and alive far longer than your lazy neighbor!