Why Do We Go To Church?

We’ve been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic series to our girls at bedtime lately. It’s entertaining and historically informative. There are some great morals taught here like hard work and honesty.

The problem is: you’ll only find morals. No gospel.

In On the Banks of Plum Creek we see an example of American frontier church planting. The children – Lara, Mary, and Carrie – had never even seen a church up until this point, although the family read from the Bible and rested on Sundays. They were all so excited that a building had been erected and a home missionary – Reverend Alden – was going to preach the next day. They got all dressed up and rode the wagon to church on Sunday.

On the way home Pa said, ‘Well, Caroline, it’s pleasant to be with a crowd of people all trying to do the right thing, same as we are.’

‘Yes, Charles,’ Ma said, thankfully. ‘It will be a pleasure to look forward to, all week.’

Even my 6 and 5 year olds could sniff out the theological problem with this.

Can you?

“And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” – Romans 4:5