On the other hand, there are usually fewer members and fewer opportunities to benefit one's profession by attending the lesser attractive churches where the more serious minded believers seem to attend. They're usually not very trendy and probably look a little too conservative and less financially lucrative for the social atmosphere of middle class America. The problem with belonging to the more socially acceptable church though, is that you don't get the Gospel truth. You get a distorted Gospel, if you get the Gospel at all these days. Unfortunately, there are far too many professing Christians that seem to like it this way...
Regardless of the size and popularity of a church, one thing for sure, mainstream pastors periodically remind their congregations, usually in a sermon, by way of select bible verses taken out of context, unfortunately, that the Godly thing to do is to "pay your tithes." Non-member and full member Christians in the congregation trying to serve God, are told from the pulpit in one way or another that it is God's will for Christians to tithe consistently to the church. Pastors use Old Testament verses as well as their own configuration of New Testament verses to elucidate their point. With the gravity of a most solemn occasion, pastors deliver their message on tithing to the congregation with as much justification as they can convincingly muster up, indirectly suggesting that if believers don't make their payments, (or pay their dues,) they don't qualify to be in equal standing with other church members who do... Even though, out of a need to worship with other Christians, you've been giving the church your financial support to the best of your ability, on occasion, and carefully etched into an otherwise good sermon, there are tithe laden sparkling moments when it seems as though the pastor has just singled you out from the tithers, or church members, leaving you feeling as though you are doing something wrong, as though the floor has just dropped out from underneath you...
Going to a respectable church and looking good to the rest of the community may be good for a business, but the benefits are only material ones. God knows the motives of the heart, and I'm sure He cares more about why we go to church rather than whether we go or not. When Jesus spoke with the strict Jews, the Pharisees, He said that they, "..clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness." (Luke 11:39). I'm not saying that everyone who goes to church goes to look good and impress others, or that they're necessarily full of greed and wickedness. I'm saying that most of the people in the majority of the churches I've gone to seem to identify more readily with values of secular society than with values pertaining to Christian character. More attention is focused on material and outward appearance, as opposed to things on the inside that are spiritual.
A lot of people attend church to find help for their troubled lives, and when they go they find that first of all, to become a member, they must give the church ten percent of their gross income. Whether they become a member or not, they find that the church services, instead of spending precious church time preaching the gospel and ministering to those who are there to get their lives together, consist mainly of lengthy church business announcements and timely explanations of the various church programs they have. I've found that very few churches today preach much of a sermon at all. Most preachers are hesitant to say things that will bring people under the conviction that we all have a sinful nature and that we all need to be born again. They preach their sermons leaving out important truths in order not to offend anyone. If they did, they'd be taking the risk of losing tithe paying members and discouraging others from joining. If they lose very many members from preaching the truth, then the preacher has to worry about being transferred....
I believe most people who attend church on a regular basis usually do live a cleaner lifestyle than those who don't, but then again there are a lot of wonderful non-Christian people out there who live a very clean lifestyle as well. When a person becomes a Christian, their priorities in life change. Taking the place of having a strong desire to do that which is socially acceptable, should be a strong desire to follow the dictates of our Creator. The change in a persons life should be evident, not necessarily by going to church, or by being preoccupied with making a lot of money, but by reflecting Gods unconditional love, non-judgmentally, to others which means loving others regardless of whether they meet up to our own personal standards, as to what we think is right or wrong...
It doesn't mean someone has had any kind of life change, or that they've been "born again," just because they go to church. The church today, aside from the true definition of the word "church," which is "the body of believers," is really only a meeting place where believers go to worship God together, not where they live out the rest of their lives. Most importantly, I believe a person needs to reflect his or her Christianity outside of the institutional church, because that's where we are most of the time... All Christians who go to church, should reflect true Christianity by actively reaching out with Christian principles to others in need rather than irresponsibly pointing them to an institutional church, giving the impression that that's where they will get their needs met. By listening to them and giving them as much time as it takes to get them through something, we communicate to our family, relatives, friends and neighbors that we care about them and not just about ourselves and what we are doing in our own lives. If others don't think we care about them, there's little incentive for them to want to understand the essence of the Gospel and find the comfort in life that we all need...
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