I often hear it said that “we don’t go to church for people, but for God.” This is usually said in the context of addressing interpersonal problems at church: “Just because Sister Susie did you wrong, that doesn’t mean you should stop going to church. God is still there, so you should come to church for Him.”
While I understand the intent behind such a statement, I think it is almost entirely backward. While it’s true that we go to church for God, the primary purpose for attending a local assembly is for the people present, not for God. After all, most things we do for God at church – worship, pray, sing, read Scripture – can be done by oneself in the privacy of their home. What we cannot do by ourselves, however, is experience Christian community and minister to the needs of one another. We need to assemble with other believers for that – what is commonly called “going to church.”
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There is a doctrine that has circulated within my fellowship for many years called the Shekel and a Half doctrine. Those espousing to this doctrine claim that in addition to paying tithes on ones income (10%), believers need to pay an additional 5%. It is often said that the additional 5% is for the upkeep of the church, or to fund a church building program. Exodus 30:11-16 is appealed to for Biblical support:
The Lord spoke to Moses: 12 “When you take a census of the Israelites according to their number, then each man is to pay a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. 13 Everyone who crosses over to those who are numbered is to pay this: a half shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel weighs twenty gerahs). The half shekel is to be an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who crosses over to those numbered, from twenty years old and up, is to pay an offering to the Lord. 15 The rich are not to increase it, and the poor are not to pay less than the half shekel when giving the offering of the Lord, to make atonement for your lives. 16 You are to receive the atonement money from the Israelites and give it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord, to make atonement for your lives.”
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Thinking to Believe 