Man Ist Was Man Isst: Therefore Attend Church Faithfully

One of the first things people tell me when they hear that I'm a pastor is a reason they do not attend church faithfully. It's not that I planned on asking them, perhaps they expected me to, but they feel the need to drop it on me. Now, for any Christian there is no logical reason to not attend worship faithfully. In fact it is very easy to show and prove why an excuse does not hold water. But that is typically a fools errand, because excuses grow like weeds, and when one is uprooted another quickly replaces it. But the purpose of this post isn't to destroy excuses but to give a positive reason to choose worship over _________.

There is a  pun which apparently only works in the German language, "Man ist was man isst." Or in a loose American translation, "You are what you eat." The essence of the pun is not that one actually becomes their food of choice, but one becomes the thing they closely associate with, or expose themselves to. This is why faithful church attendance is crucial to sanctification and general growth as a Christian. The church is the place where we communally encounter and expose ourselves to the living God. So the question isn't necessarily, "Do I want to go to church today?" The question is, "Do I want to expose myself to the living God today?" For one cannot continually be exposed to the presence of God without becoming like him.

So, my prayer is that every Christian, both faithful and occasional worshipper alike, would not only attend church faithfully, but attend for the right reason. God is waiting to meet us there, and show us who he is. So let's meet him there faithfully, for man ist was man isst.