Agree OR disagree?

A good friend of mine, when asked what she's looking for in a man, stated that she'd prefer a man who PUTS GOD FIRST. A mutual friend of ours literally beat her down about this, claiming that the ONLY way to measure how committed someone is to God is by how many times/OFTEN they go to church.

I COMPLETELY DISAGREE with this. Do you?

How strong someone's FAITH is determines how committed or not they are to God. Sure, church is a great way to learn/study the word, BUT it is not the ONLY way. Someone's faith starts in the HEART, not in a church building. Whether someone learns & lives the word through church on Sundays OR hell, even at their own homes is up to each individual person.

This man tried to argue that how often a person goes to church is the TRUE MEASURE that tells how committed they are to God. First off, I feel that God cares moreso about how you model & follow his word/teachings moreso than what building you sit in for a couple hours on Sunday. If a man learns/studies the word at his own home & yet lives a good life, through means of following the scriptures he's studying, THAT is a man who puts God first!

How often do we see hypocrites making church on Sunday their FIRST stop. Just b/c someone enters a church building doesn't in any way say anything about their character. The way to Heaven (as believed by Christians) is all in acknowledging & accepting Jesus Christ as Savior & by living/modeling his ways, as best as possible. There is no scripture in the bible that says the way to the Kingdom lies in your attendance at church. It's contradictory that someone, just b/c they attend church every week is seen as more of a GOOD & GODLY person (even if they fall asleep during the service) than the person who chooses not to go to church, BUT yet still follows the word & lives their life the way God wants them to.

What is YOUR intake on this. Is how often a person goes to church the TRUE indicator of how committed they are to God?

Posted by krysrenee7
Is how often a person goes to church the TRUE indicator of how committed they are to God?

No, sorry, I was brought up in the church while I was growing up and I saw the most deceitful, pious, disgusting, hypocritical people you could lay your eyes on there. BUT, they were at church every week for various prayer meetings, blessing sessions, etc, and they were still ghastly people. Don't get me wrong, there are perfectly lovely, religious people who devote their lives to whatever religion they believe in, and they don't just "talk the talk" they "walk the walk." On the other hand, I've known people who have never stepped a foot in a church, synagogue, mosque, etc, and some who don't believe in any type of organized religion, and some of them are the most upstanding, honest, gentile people I've ever known. They would give you the clothes off their back, food and a place to live just because they would feel that's the right thing to do. So, again, from MY upbringing and what I'VE seen in my life, there really is no correlation that would lead me to believe that if someone was committed to God and went to church multiple times in a week, that they are somehow more "worthy" than someone who doesn't. Additionally, when I was in church growing up everyone would preach to me and my cousins that we should date, "nice God fearing boys of the church." To which I replied, "Oh, the same ones that knocked up - Susie, Jenny, Karen, etc, but told them not to tell who the father was? Yeah, I'll pass."

Posted by krysrenee7

What is YOUR intake on this. Is how often a person goes to church the TRUE indicator of how committed they are to God?

The problem is that you cannot give a flat yes or no answer to this question. I was raised in church and attended ALL the time... like 4-5 times a week until I was about 20.

The problem with asking if church attendance = a relationship with or commitment to god is that while attendance does not automatically mean a "good christian", a "good christian" would be a regular attender. It's one of those, "All squares are rectangle but not all rectangles are squares" things. If you follow the bible you are instructed to go to church, to form a fellowship with other believers, to join them as the "body of christ".

Hebrews 10:25
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

1 Corinthians 12:14-23
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.



Like I said though, simply attending doesn't mean anything by itself.

@USC: Perfectly said. That was my point to this guy! How man/humans measure the level of commitment to God is completely DIFFERENT than how God measures one's faith. The importance/focus should NOT be the most important. People can AND DO learn values, morals, right/wrong & the scriptures w/o ever having stepped foot in a church. And it is how OFTEN they live through/for the word that really matters & counts.

A church is just a building designed to symbolize something BIG & of importance (God), no different than a cross (jewelry) is. That's like saying someone who doesn't wear a cross around their neck must not be committed to God. HOW someone chooses to study & follow the word is much MORE important to God than WHERE they study/follow the word. As long as the job is getting done, that's all that matters.

He claimed that if a woman went up to a man, & asked him how he felt about God, she'd be more concerned with how often that man went to church. He claimed that if a man claimed he didn't go to church at all but yet claimed he put God first, the woman would automatically assume this man was either full of shxt or that she would debate his loyalty to God since he claimed he never goes to church. My response was that no that is how HE measures someone's commitment to God. But how others measure that very same level of commitment differs. I'd take a God-fearing non church-goer than a hypocritical "At church early every Sunday morning" guy

We can even go as far as to define the word "Church." My bible states that church is the meeting of 3 or more people who band together to worship. To assume that 3 or more people worshipping is not technically "church" just b/c they aren't worshipping at St. Paul's Catholic church, for example is utter bull. God wants us to worship him & doing so in numbers IS ideal. BUT, the actual building someone worships him in is less important than the actual act of worshipping him period is.

I'm not religious. I'm spiritual. There is a great distinction from my viewpoint, but that's neither here nor there. I could care less if a person goes to church or not. A person could worship a cabbage head as far as I'm concerned, as long as they are honest, respectful, hardworking, genuine and care about humanity as a whole.

I agree with all of you! Hell a serial killer could go to church every Sunday if he/she wanted to. Going to church doesn't automatically guarantee that a person is spiritual/religious or more holier than the person who doesn't go to church at all.

This guy said that a man who never goes to church can't possibly be spiritual/religious & that he damn sure couldn't possibly be putting God first. As you can all imagine, this is when my blood pressure started rising! People are so ignorant.

^^^LOL, knock it off, somebody may take you seriously!

@Fiesty..I completely agree. Any time you are supporting something specific in numbers, the chances of you truly believing in your own feelings/believes increases. There would be NO difference in me going to church & praising him in front of 400 people no different than I could praise him with 5 of my friends at my own house. The focus is in praising him & yes, surrounding yourself with like-minded people IS important too b/c it often motivates you to keep strong in your faith.

People forget that for the average person, church is only 1 day a week (Sunday). So if actually attending the church is what makes someone supposedly more "holier" than someone who doesn't attend church at all, then how come those same members don't consider themselves "unholy" Mon-Sat when they are NOT at church. Believers in God are supposed to believe him 7 days a week, not on just Sunday. And if a person can praise him just as much Mon-Sat without yet having gone to church then what's the difference b/w a person who does that vs. the person who praises him Mon-Sat but yet doesn't go to church on Sunday? There isn't a difference

I read a religious, romantic fiction once. I liked the romantic aspect of it well enough. But the killer that kept me from favoriting it was that the author kept mentioning God, Heaven, fate and destiny more than enough times in every chapter. And in doing so the author managed to turn something thats supposed to be light and uplifting to dreary and downright depressing...

Posted by krysrenee7
A good friend of mine, when asked what she's looking for in a man, stated that she'd prefer a man who PUTS GOD FIRST. A mutual friend of ours literally beat her down about this, claiming that the ONLY way to measure how committed someone is to God is by how many times/OFTEN they go to church.

I COMPLETELY DISAGREE with this. Do you?

Your disagreement with him is just as extreme as his disagreement with her .. I would suggest that instead of creating an environment (thread here) to enhance this intolerance, it would be wiser for you to not worry about his intolerance to other peoples views and worry about the fact that you cannot handle that other people have opposing veiws.

I'm not religious at all, but I was amused by something I recently saw and thought I'd share it here...


Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

Posted by Nefer
I'm not religious at all, but I was amused by something I recently saw and thought I'd share it here...


Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

LOL! I'll have to remember that one!

Posted by krysrenee7
A good friend of mine, when asked what she's looking for in a man, stated that she'd prefer a man who PUTS GOD FIRST. A mutual friend of ours literally beat her down about this, claiming that the ONLY way to measure how committed someone is to God is by how many times/OFTEN they go to church.

I COMPLETELY DISAGREE with this. Do you?

I disagree with it; because there are other ways to tell someone is committed to their individual belief system than how often they can physically make it to services.

@Cc: You said it perfectly! This is exactly what I said to the guy but of course he was maintaining that his opinion & ONLY his opinion was right. IT's sad.

& Yes I agree with most of you that some of the worst people are the 1st & loudest one's screaming/praising the Lord's name at church (Sunday or not). Now granted, church IS for sinners so it's not necessarily a bad thing that people who are spiritually lost attend services. After all, that's what church is for. It's not only for learning the word, BUT church is also for those who have lost their way and/or for those who can through the word, learn to become a better person. When I see prostitutes, drug addicts/dealers, etc. at church, I don't turn my nose up at them b/c hey, at LEAST they ARE at church & it makes me feel even better that even after them knowing they'll probably face judgment & the stuck up nods from other "holier than thou" Christians/Catholics, they still had enough courage & hopefully faith to attend service.

What I CAN'T stand are those who take up this "holier than thou" attitude. The ones that use religion when it's conveinant. The ones who twists the scriptures/words in the Bible to fit their own life style . The ones who don't see a thing wrong with lying, but yet are quick to put down those who are homosexual and/or adulteres. I can't stand those who spend all church looking down on/putting down those who are more "lost" than they are. That's like the pot calling the kettle black!

None of us will EVER be perfect, BUT it bothers me to see members going to church every single Sunday, but yet either 1. Turning back into their "old" selves as soon as church lets out and 2. Those who NEVER seem to change/learn a thing.

A person can attend church all day long, 7 days a week BUT if they're not learning anything and/or applying the things they've learned in church, then they were better off not going. Those who allow church to make them into "snobby sinners" (And you'll notice I still refer to them as SINNERS before anything else) are the ones I call ignorant & part in reason why I can't blaim some non-believers for why they said "to hell with the church." There is alot of hypocrisy in the churh & it's no wonder alot of today's youth are starting to stray from anything involving church. Children, especially learn by example & it kills me that people use church as the 1ST place to set bad examples, & especially bad examples with how one's attitude should be towards their fellow church member/peer.

It's not to say that after attending church many times, one should become perfect, no. But hey, after a while, one's spiritual/emotional attitude about love, life & other things should be changing & in a positive direction. There is nothing worse than recognizing the LOUDEST church member as the same person that keeps sinning Mon-Sat only to pretend to be "holier than thou" on Sunday. If you go to the club on Sat & attend services Sunday, good for you, BUT this is NOT repenting. But for some reason, people believe that their mere attendance makes them better

You can be close to God anywhere. You dont need to go to church and somehow
get it Validated by some guy wearing a Robe.

@Dogs: Exactly. Now granted there's nothing wrong with those guys in robes lol as they also stand for a greater God & purpose that I also believe in. I support anyone who finds their calling to be in preaching the word, as long as they don't use their "robe" as a means to gain power and/or start an era of judgement.

The priest/preacher is the shepard of the church & if THEY can't even set good examples and/or be as pure as possible in their own teachings (AND in their own understandings of the scriptures), all those who are following these leaders are just as doomed. People sometimes idolize and/or put on high pedistools those who are leaders in the church & granted, that's not necessarily a bad thing if doing so allows each person to follow great examples set by great leaders! BUT, oh boy this can become a HUGE problem if the followers are following the WRONG leaders!

I heard a preacher (Baptist) say once that God hated homosexuals & that there is NO forgiveness for that kind of sin. But then he turned around & told the congregation that adultery was a sin, yes but that God forgave it. And what do ya know, slowly but surely certain members that beforehand didn't look down on homosexuals, ALL OF THE SUDDEN starting convincing themselves/believing that some sins were worse than others, when the Bible clearly says that all sins share the same equal weight.