In his book Letters to My Children, Daniel Taylor responds to a series of questions from his young children. At one point his son Matthew asks, "Church is getting boring. Why do we have to go to church?"

Here's part of Taylor's reply:

Think about it. If a friend of yours called and said that a famous athlete or singer was going to be at his house, and asked if you wanted to come over, wouldn't you go? And wouldn't you be excited? Of course! And so would I.

Well, church is the place where God will be, every time you go. Of course he is with you whether you're in church or not, but he can be there in a special way when many believers gather to celebrate him together.

"Sounds great," I hear you saying, "but then how come you fell asleep so much? If God is really there, I mean really there, then how come we aren't bug-eyed and breathless most all the time?"

That's a very good question. I wish I had a very good answer. Part of it is that God knows we can't take very much of him. It's like when you hold Fluffs, our hamster. If you squeezed very hard, Fluffs would be on his way to hamster heaven. You have to hold him gently, talk to him quietly. Well, God has to be sort of like that with us.

Truthfully, though, the biggest reason might be that we don't want very much of God. We want God to stay in his cage like Fluffs does. We are afraid of losing control of our own lives. We just want him to help us a little here, and forgive us a little there, and let us handle the rest. And so we try to make church a safe place where we can get a little bit of God but not too much.

We don't like surprises, not even from God, so we make our churches places where surprises aren't likely to happen. We ask God to come, but only if he will be polite. And therefore, little kids and adult kids often fall asleep—even if they keep their eyes open.

And yet, at the very same time, church is a wonderful place. God has chosen it, "sorry-ness" and all, to be the place where he will meet his people, the place from which he will send his people to all parts of the world to preach the good news about him.