What an excellent, well written and well expressed article, in fact just about an hour ago I was talking to a neighbor asking him if his step kids had stopped going to church because I hadn't seen them all summer, he replied yes, which for him and his wife means that none of their children are attending church. He also said he is the only one of his siblings active in the church. He then said this, "it all boils down to personal testimony, you have to personally believe, can't live on your parents beliefs or friends or teachers", something we have been taught from the pulpit many times but which we are seeing the effects of more than I remember in my lifetime. Great article !
Sally SmithSeptember 23, 2024
What keeps me in church is the example of my family coming across the plains with Willie Company. They sacrificed everything for Jesus Christ and the newly restored. So it sufficeth me to carry on that testimony to my family and those that come after me
Ronald BarnesSeptember 23, 2024
I recorded my reasons and was going to share them, but I decided some were too personal and sharing a part would not suffice. So, I will only share the last sentence: The gospel and church attendance are a part of me, and I’m not complete without it.
Jenny Madsen SvendsenSeptember 23, 2024
Like Peter, I would say:"Lord, where would I go". I would say because I know that Christ lives, He is my Saviour, and I know the church is His, I can attend Sacrament meeting and partake of the Sacrament to renew my covenants with Him, those are the reasons I go, and of course all the reasons you mentioned in your article.
Harold RustSeptember 23, 2024
A line wonderful outline that encompasses all the reasons I personally have seen applied by those remaining committed to Church involvement and those who linger or leave altogether. Everyone of us makes weekly decisions (although most often those decisions are governed by habit) about our personal level of commitment; thus, it can be very meaningful to reflect upon these reasons discussed herein to add confidence to our understanding of why we are choosing what we do choose. Hopefully it will bring all of us to carefully and methodically choose to follow the Savior.
Rochelle HaleSeptember 23, 2024
I am a convert of many decades, from a mostly non-member family. In my late teens, I had to learn when I could sacrifice going to church (Grandma's birthday) and when nothing (family beach outing) was going to keep me from attending. As I have seen family and friends come and go (mostly go), there is still no place I would rather be. I love Elder Ballard's talk "To Whom Shall We Go? (2016). Where else will we find (mostly) like-minded people, the blessings of the Priesthood, the gospel plan and purpose for our lives, the opportunities for temple worship and ordinances, living Prophets and apostles, guidance to solve problems or give comfort, etc.? My husband and I have experienced the blessings of attending church during family reunions, when we have taken time away from business conferences, when attending small branches and large congregations, in foreign languages and countries, in hotel rooms and on cruises, and, of course, at home during the Pandemic. We have made the choice to make the Sabbath a sacred day wherever we are.
Ben JonesSeptember 23, 2024
My step-daughter quit the Church because the bishop sided with her soon-to-be ex-husband. It was a real shame because she had been Primary president and her husband had been Elders Quorum president. They and their six children looked like the perfect family. It was her inspiration in the Temple to introduce me to her mother after my first wife's death. But he started making wild accusations of her being unfaithful. I was trying to counsel both of them until he started accusing me of hacking into his computer, at which point I concluded that he had lost his marbles, especially since I've never hacked a computer in my life. But the damage was done. She quit the Church. He did not, but he couldn't honestly say in a Temple Recommend interview that he was providing support for his ex-wife. The result was that most of the kids ended up quitting the Church as well. One served a mission and got married in the Temple but neither of his parents could attend the ceremony. My wife and I remain very active but we put up with snide comments from her about the Church as well as praises for our [now former] bishop from ward members.
Ironically, my late first wife left the Church when she divorced her first husband but after we were married and I adopted her kids, she convinced me to join the Church. She advised me not to expect Church members to be perfect. I told her she'd already disabused me of that notion.
Anyway, that's the thing we need to be on guard about. The Church is true but Church members are human and make mistakes.
Charles McClellandSeptember 23, 2024
Thank you for this insightful and comprehensive article. I am sharing it with my children, their spouses and my grandchildren!
Vaughn BarrusSeptember 23, 2024
Oh wretched man that I am. The sins that do so easily beset me.
I am so far from perfect that without the gospel and church I don’t know where I would be. This scares me and makes me want to be in church just so I can stay on or as close to the straight and narrow as possible.
As the author has stated, our personal spiritual experience fades as time passes and we start to loose the lift they give us. In order to retain this lift I strive to continue to have more spiritual experiences. I do this by attending church and going often to the temple. If we stop going to church we loose the ability to go to the temple and then to receive these spiritual experiences. I can not imagine life without church and especially without the temple experience.
I attended church first tp refill my lamp with oil and then to remain worthy of attend the temple where I get the strength to carry on.
VaughnSeptember 23, 2024
I may comment more than once.
First I learned long ago, if people are on pedestals it’s because we put them there. Most often it’s not because they put themselves on that pedestal. So when they fall from the pedestal that we put them on we loose faith.
I used to work with an emeritus member of the 70, in a meeting ( not a church meeting) he suggested that everyone needed to watch a particular R rated movie that depicted the 2nd world war. When I questioned him as to the rating and to the council of the church against watching such movies he stammered a bit then said “ This was the war. I lived it, everyone should watch it so they can know.”
This taught me that we, regardless of our callings or position in the church we are all human and weak and frail.
It also taught me not to put people on pedestals.
Comments | Return to Story
Corey D.September 23, 2024
What an excellent, well written and well expressed article, in fact just about an hour ago I was talking to a neighbor asking him if his step kids had stopped going to church because I hadn't seen them all summer, he replied yes, which for him and his wife means that none of their children are attending church. He also said he is the only one of his siblings active in the church. He then said this, "it all boils down to personal testimony, you have to personally believe, can't live on your parents beliefs or friends or teachers", something we have been taught from the pulpit many times but which we are seeing the effects of more than I remember in my lifetime. Great article !
Sally SmithSeptember 23, 2024
What keeps me in church is the example of my family coming across the plains with Willie Company. They sacrificed everything for Jesus Christ and the newly restored. So it sufficeth me to carry on that testimony to my family and those that come after me
Ronald BarnesSeptember 23, 2024
I recorded my reasons and was going to share them, but I decided some were too personal and sharing a part would not suffice. So, I will only share the last sentence: The gospel and church attendance are a part of me, and I’m not complete without it.
Jenny Madsen SvendsenSeptember 23, 2024
Like Peter, I would say:"Lord, where would I go". I would say because I know that Christ lives, He is my Saviour, and I know the church is His, I can attend Sacrament meeting and partake of the Sacrament to renew my covenants with Him, those are the reasons I go, and of course all the reasons you mentioned in your article.
Harold RustSeptember 23, 2024
A line wonderful outline that encompasses all the reasons I personally have seen applied by those remaining committed to Church involvement and those who linger or leave altogether. Everyone of us makes weekly decisions (although most often those decisions are governed by habit) about our personal level of commitment; thus, it can be very meaningful to reflect upon these reasons discussed herein to add confidence to our understanding of why we are choosing what we do choose. Hopefully it will bring all of us to carefully and methodically choose to follow the Savior.
Rochelle HaleSeptember 23, 2024
I am a convert of many decades, from a mostly non-member family. In my late teens, I had to learn when I could sacrifice going to church (Grandma's birthday) and when nothing (family beach outing) was going to keep me from attending. As I have seen family and friends come and go (mostly go), there is still no place I would rather be. I love Elder Ballard's talk "To Whom Shall We Go? (2016). Where else will we find (mostly) like-minded people, the blessings of the Priesthood, the gospel plan and purpose for our lives, the opportunities for temple worship and ordinances, living Prophets and apostles, guidance to solve problems or give comfort, etc.? My husband and I have experienced the blessings of attending church during family reunions, when we have taken time away from business conferences, when attending small branches and large congregations, in foreign languages and countries, in hotel rooms and on cruises, and, of course, at home during the Pandemic. We have made the choice to make the Sabbath a sacred day wherever we are.
Ben JonesSeptember 23, 2024
My step-daughter quit the Church because the bishop sided with her soon-to-be ex-husband. It was a real shame because she had been Primary president and her husband had been Elders Quorum president. They and their six children looked like the perfect family. It was her inspiration in the Temple to introduce me to her mother after my first wife's death. But he started making wild accusations of her being unfaithful. I was trying to counsel both of them until he started accusing me of hacking into his computer, at which point I concluded that he had lost his marbles, especially since I've never hacked a computer in my life. But the damage was done. She quit the Church. He did not, but he couldn't honestly say in a Temple Recommend interview that he was providing support for his ex-wife. The result was that most of the kids ended up quitting the Church as well. One served a mission and got married in the Temple but neither of his parents could attend the ceremony. My wife and I remain very active but we put up with snide comments from her about the Church as well as praises for our [now former] bishop from ward members. Ironically, my late first wife left the Church when she divorced her first husband but after we were married and I adopted her kids, she convinced me to join the Church. She advised me not to expect Church members to be perfect. I told her she'd already disabused me of that notion. Anyway, that's the thing we need to be on guard about. The Church is true but Church members are human and make mistakes.
Charles McClellandSeptember 23, 2024
Thank you for this insightful and comprehensive article. I am sharing it with my children, their spouses and my grandchildren!
Vaughn BarrusSeptember 23, 2024
Oh wretched man that I am. The sins that do so easily beset me. I am so far from perfect that without the gospel and church I don’t know where I would be. This scares me and makes me want to be in church just so I can stay on or as close to the straight and narrow as possible. As the author has stated, our personal spiritual experience fades as time passes and we start to loose the lift they give us. In order to retain this lift I strive to continue to have more spiritual experiences. I do this by attending church and going often to the temple. If we stop going to church we loose the ability to go to the temple and then to receive these spiritual experiences. I can not imagine life without church and especially without the temple experience. I attended church first tp refill my lamp with oil and then to remain worthy of attend the temple where I get the strength to carry on.
VaughnSeptember 23, 2024
I may comment more than once. First I learned long ago, if people are on pedestals it’s because we put them there. Most often it’s not because they put themselves on that pedestal. So when they fall from the pedestal that we put them on we loose faith. I used to work with an emeritus member of the 70, in a meeting ( not a church meeting) he suggested that everyone needed to watch a particular R rated movie that depicted the 2nd world war. When I questioned him as to the rating and to the council of the church against watching such movies he stammered a bit then said “ This was the war. I lived it, everyone should watch it so they can know.” This taught me that we, regardless of our callings or position in the church we are all human and weak and frail. It also taught me not to put people on pedestals.
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