Somewhere I read the lack of desire for dressing to attend church was the most often expressed reason for not going. I cite that as right up there with people not eating cereal for breakfast anymore, because then they have to wash the dishes. REALLY!
As an aside, cereal will make you fat.;-) Empty carbs.
I am happy the Savior did not get up in the morning the week of Passover and say, “I am lazy and don’t know what to wear.” Our Lord gave His all for us, and He deserves no less from us. Get up, get dressed and go to church. You are number 3 int he equation. It is for God first, others second and lastly us.
I go, and I dress appropriately too. You should see what the people at my (Catholic) church wear. Tight capri pants and five inch heels on one woman, scruffy jeans on another...But at least they're there. Friends of mine, a very devout couple who are involved spiritually and socially, have kids who stop attending as soon as they're old enough to work and offer an excuse for skipping mass. Other friends, nearer my age (20s) don't go because of employment or family demands or just the sense that their faith has little relevance in their lives, beyond Christmas and maybe Easter.
It isn't all on them, though. The Church has gone soft, imo. Heavy on tolerance and outreach and relativism. Primary concern: don't offend anyone. Don't even defend Christ if it means stepping on someone's toes. Never condemn even the murder of infants, someone might be made to feel, um, sinful.
What does the Church actually stand for, anymore, that people should stand with it, and kneel in it? Seems like in some churches, if you still have religious beliefs, you're welcome to stay home and keep it between yourself and the Lord.
I still go...but there's so much ritual and so little communion with God, I don't feel as I should when I leave the building.
You'd never guess that from the Church I go to. People going in T-Shirts and Shorts, they obviously didn't put too much effort in.
Orthodox Christians generally don’t eat breakfast before church, if you are receiving communion. No dishes to wash! LOL! We have coffee hour afterwards. Our church is small, and we generally enjoy each other’s company. I feel like something is missing in my life if I don’t go to church. It just depends on your priorities. It’s easy to get out of the habit of going to church.
There will always be bad clergy/pastors, as well as hypocrites in churches. The Church should be a hospital for us, not a court of law.
Different perspective...
Our church started it's life 30 years ago as a conservative faith, where men wore suits to church.
A few years into things, one of the elders read that only 65% of American men owned a suit. The pastoral staff and elder board took time to discuss whether they wanted to start by giving up on the souls of 35% of men who didn't own a suit.
They decided to get rid of suits. It was a transition. They went to leisure suits, then sweaters, then left that behind.
Today, we are informal. We do not want barriers to leading people to Christ. Every time we hold our quarterly baptism, there are typically 200 or so people who were formerly unchurched, who have come to Christ for eternal life and are publicly following Him in obedience. We just passed 14,000 members, divided out in 8 congregations in our area.
I've never seen anything like it. I've come to believe people need Christ as much as always and they know it. When you teach truth in a culturally relevant way, you grow. If you are culturally irrelevant, you alienate those in the culture. If you give up truth, you are a social club. You need both.