Skipping Church

So for the last few months, Beth and I (and the kids) have been skipping church. Probably about 4 times over the last 3 months. It is funny because we have both made comments about being heathens cause we weren't sitting in a service. We don't do anything special when we don't go to church, just kind of relax and hang out around the house. This is weird for a youth pastor. I mean, really, we aren't supposed to skip church to just hang out. I believe we are just relaxing. Taking the day to relax and enjoy our day off. I know that from the moment we started at Covenant till we left, we probably "skipped" church maybe 4 times over an almost 4 year period.

Anyways, this just got me to thinking about church and truly what it means to go to church. Is the physical attendance the important part or where our heart is. How many of us think that God has a scorecard up there, with our names and attendance dates? I know there are people in the church that push it, like our salvation depends on our attendance. Please don't get me wrong, I believe the church attendance is highly important, but I also believe the most people in a church just go to church to be there, not to worship. To me, attending church is about worshiping God, learning from the pastor and fellowshipping with other believers.

Let me know what you think. What does attending church mean to you?