On a recent Sunday morning, my five-year-old daughter asked me why she had to go to church. She didn’t feel like going. I explained that because God made her, she belonged to God, and though God had given her to our family, she still belonged to God, and he wanted her to go to church. Then she asked me how I knew God wanted her to go to church, at which point I said, “God told me I have to take you to church.”
Strictly speaking, that’s not true: I’m not certain God has ever spoken to me, but I do know God has never spoken to me about my daughter’s church attendance. Yet neither is what I told her a lie. If she could understand and pay attention long enough, I might have explained that the church’s worship is a unique and necessary way we commune with God, that communion with God is why we exist, and that Scripture instructs parents to raise children in the knowledge and love of God. But she’s a child. “God told me” will have to suffice for now.
Read Full Article »