I really enjoy

the Beetle Bailey comic strip. One strip showed the camp chaplain meeting

Miss Buxley, General Halftrack's secretary, on the sidewalk.

The chaplain

says, "It was great to see you in church yesterday, Miss Buxley."

The next panel shows the chaplain thinking, "Was it ever! She brought

a full house!"

It's good to

go to church! There are some very sound reasons for going to church on

a regular basis, and some good reasons for missing church occasionally.

And, of course, most pastors have heard their share of excuses for why

people don't go to church.

According to

EthicsDaily.com, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United

States, believed in attending and participating in church. In 1917, in

an interview with "Ladies Home Journal," Roosevelt offered these

reasons for going to church:

In the actual

world, a churchless community ­ a community where men have abandoned

and scoffed at or ignored their religious needs ­ is a community

on the rapid downgrade.

Church work

and church attendance mean the cultivation of the habit of feeling some

responsibility for others and the sense of braced moral strength which

prevents a relaxation of one's own moral fiber.

There are

enough holidays for most of us which can quite properly be devoted to

pure holiday making. Sundays differ from other holidays ­ among other

ways ­ in the fact that there are 52 of them every year. On Sunday,

go to church.

Yes, I know

all the excuses. I know one can worship the Creator and dedicate oneself

to good living in a grove of trees, or by a running brook, or in one's

own house, just as well as in church. But I also know as a matter of cold

fact the average man does not thus worship or thus dedicate himself. If

he strays away from church he does not spend his time in good works or

lofty meditation. He looks over the colored supplement in the newspaper.

He may not

hear a good sermon at church. But unless he is very unfortunate he will

hear a sermon by a good man who, with his good wife, is engaged all the

week long in a series of wearing, humdrum and important tasks for making

hard lives a little easier.

He will listen

to and take part in reading some beautiful passages from the Bible. And

if he is not familiar with the Bible, he has suffered a loss.

He will probably

take part in singing some good hymns.

He will meet

and nod to, or speak to, good, quiet neighbors. He will come away feeling

a little more charitably toward all the world, even toward those excessively

foolish young men who regard church going as rather a soft performance.

I advocate

a man's joining in church works for the sake of showing his faith by his

works.

The man who

does not in some way, active or not, connect himself with some active,

working church misses many opportunities for helping his neighbors, and

therefore, incidentally, for helping himself.

Teddy Roosevelt

was on to something important, even 85 years ago. Churchgoing is good

for you and your family. Worshiping each week as a family is beneficial,

healthy, and uplifting. It helps you keep your focus and prepares you

to live life in the real world. It refuels your soul. It refreshes your

life. Why not be in church this Sunday?

(Dr. David

L. Chancey is pastor of McDonough Road Baptist Church in Fayetteville.

The church family meets at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join

them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m.)

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