drawn by the spirit

d. b. knox's understanding of the church as fellowship, "the unselfish giving of ourselves to one another in the common task which for Christians is sharing together with God in God's work of bringing blessing to our fellow men" (works, ii, 59) is quite refreshing. as is the following lengthy quote about why christians go to church.

"Consider further for a moment why we come to church, why we put aside the time, and in the old days put on our best clothes. Why come to church? The universal answer amongst evangelicals is 'to worship God,' and we call the service a 'worship service.' But this is quite out of line with the New Testament. In the New Testament, worship is a moment by moment, daily activity. What we do is our worship of God, for we do everything, without exception, for him, for his glory, that is, to show forth his character (Rom 12:1; 1 Cor 10:31). So it cannot be to worship God that we come to church, for we are doing that every moment of the day. Such language betrays an inadequate concept of our daily life. The reason for coming to church cannot primarily be in order that we might pray, for normally we pray privately, entering into our room and closing the door, as Jesus told us to. Nor can it primarily be to hear God's word, for we read and meditate on it at home, where these days we may also listen to tapes of the world's best preachers and expositors.

So why go to church? The reason is that we are drawn into each other's company by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. We are drawn together to give expression to the reality that we are all in Christ's presence" (works, ii, 75-76).