I'm a Christian, I just don't go to church

When someone says to me, “I am a Christian, I just don’t go to church,” I know there is one reason given more than any other. “I was forced to go to church when I was younger.” So, what does this mean?

Obviously, it means the person didn’t like church. I don’t think you will hear one of our children saying someday, for instance, “I don’t go to Disneyland because I was forced to go there when I was a child.” The church experience wasn’t a positive one if people say they were forced to go. Well, as an adult, you can actually go wherever you want. It’s not as if an experience with the Christian community is limited to what you remember years ago as a child. Church experiences can be quite different.

By the way, don’t too quickly buy into parents “forcing” their children to go to church as a bad thing. Being an active Christian is an extremely healthy lifestyle. Active Christians statistically have much better mental and physical health than people of no active faith life. I will say, however, that if parents attend a church which is not “youth-friendly,” then they are doing their children a great disservice, by "forcing" them to go there rather than taking them to a church that loves kids. This can make a big difference in the future.