1) The same reason we go
to church on any other Sunday: to worship and honor the God who created us and loved us
so much he gave his only Son.
For our family, the strongest reason to go to church at any
time is wrapped up in the same reason we are Anglicans in the Catholic
tradition: to receive the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. If you truly believe that Jesus instituted
Holy Communion for his Church, as a means of transforming grace, why would you
not want to receive as often as possible?
But let's say you're in the broader Protestant/Evangelical
tradition, where "church" means to come together to sing a few songs
and hear the preacher preach. Do you not
do so because you believe that, in a special way, God is there? Why would that change because you don’t have
to clock in the next day? If worship is just
one duty among others, such as work and dental appointments, maybe your worship
needs some more, uh, worship.
2) We're better than you.
In fact, just the opposite is true. We are keenly aware of our faults and
failures, our sins and offenses. We need
more and more of God in order to be made more and more like him, and we have a
long way to go. So any chance we get to
get molded, off we go!
3) Our parents took us
when we were growing up.
Both Rebecca and I grew up in Evangelical households that
took church seriously. If we were on vacation,
we picked a church and there we went. On
a purely pragmatic level, it's usually a good experience for kids to see how
other Christians worship God. But more
importantly, we learned growing up that a sine
qua non of following Jesus is going to church.
Your turn: what are some other reasons you attend church while on
vacation?
