GO HOME
- The Novelist Dario
- Nov 24, 2025
- 8 min read
We all know the feeling. A standard morning turns into an eventful night. Friends and family laughing, joking, drinking, dancing, and having fun despite the threat of sunrise looming in the background. We’ve yawned amongst ourselves more times than we can count, but we’re holding onto the moment none of us wants to pass. Then, a trigger activates. The steady whispers tempting us, “Isn’t it time you go home and get in bed? Remember that comfortable bed waiting for you?”
Without much debate, knowing that the body’s rebuttal will be another yawn, we depart. No one has to tell us. We know it should happen. We should return to our place of rest. We need to go home.
Perhaps, you have been far from the last place you called home, living or vacationing in a new city, taking on a new life. Then, randomly, you get a feeling in your chest. Emptiness grows within you. You miss home. You miss the familiar faces, the familiar routine, the familiar spots to eat, drink, relax, or play at. The excitement of the new city has worn off. You want to go home.
Whether we are out for the night, on vacation, or living in a new city, we all have experienced that moment where our hearts begin to yearn for home. We long for the bed and how it sits in the spot we chose for ourselves. We long for the hugs, the good mornings, the smiles, the voices, and aromas we had grown accustomed to. It’s almost instinctive how we tell ourselves to return. Knowing this, I ask, why is it that you know to return home, but fail to recognize when you need to return home to church?
Just as the yearnings of home come so frequently for all of us that we’ve coined the term, “homesick,” should we not also yearn for a church home? Do we not long to worship with others? Are we not looking for a community to grow with? Have we listened to the varying perspectives of other believers lately? It seems we are wanderers, living the nomadic lifestyle, when there is a home waiting for us to return.
In the last five years, I have attempted to call two churches home, spending six months attending at a time. Unfortunately, they became riddled with controversy and confusion, and I had to deny settlement and move on. I lived a sort of nomadic life for a while, visiting ten churches, giving them weeks to help me feel welcomed. All failed me in the end. Still, when Sunday would come around, I would long for corporate worship, studied sermons, and Christian community from the comfort of my home. Thus, I kept searching.
I read my Bible frequently. I watched sermons online. I listened to Gospel music. Many of my friends would do Bible studies when I asked. Even with all this, I would have conversations with my closer friends and they’d ask, “Did you go to church this week?” They could tell I was a little off. I’d say things at work and they’d respond, “Oh, you need to go to church. You’re acting different. Don’t skip this week.” Of course, it’s all playful, but it was true. There is a difference in me when I do not enter a sanctuary on the weekend.
Call it learned behavior. Call it reminders. Call it whatever you need to. I call it missing home and experiencing the effects of that. Live in a foreign country long enough and the habits of your home country will begin to fade from you.
I didn’t make it to church, so I wasn’t reminded of certain scriptures. I wasn’t encouraged to raise my hands, bow my head, pray, or sing. I didn’t stop and catch up with friends after service. I was left to myself and, shocker, I was found lacking.
I understand. It is much easier to discern when it’s time to go home when you’re physically tired. You’re tired, your eyes get heavy, and you nod off. There are not enough known signs for when you’re spiritually tired. However, don’t you think it’s an issue that your spirit is tired and you can’t tell?
My vocabulary becomes more vulgar when I’m spiritually tired. My consideration drops. My concerns are way eviler. My arrogance remains unchecked. I feel less like reading my Bible and I certainly am not open to criticism. These are just some of the things I notice when I stop attending church. All these little signs fueled by disobedience to God. What are your signs?
We have convinced ourselves that it is okay to miss out on, “Can I get an amen?” We wonder the world for months and years without a single, “turn to your neighbor and say…” God visits His people weekly and we act like we are above sitting in a building with others. Why?
If you walk up to someone and they tell you they haven’t been home in months or years, wouldn’t you think something is wrong? If they showed you the fanciest house in the richest part of town, and they said they didn’t want to go back there, wouldn’t you question why? If a soldier is supposed to meet with their command weekly, wouldn’t you report them if you find them anywhere but where they were ordered to be?
The Bible has always said, “… [let us] not forsake gathering together, as is the habit of some…”[1] It also states, “… where two or three are gather in My name, there I am with them.”[2] The book of Acts details how the disciples of Christ gathered and created churches for the advancement of the kingdom.[3] Why is there so much evidence in the Bible about going to church being ignored? Who do we think we are?
We are the body of Christ[4]. We function as a unit. When any limb, vein, nerve, or piece of skin is severed from your body, it dies. Blood stops running when out of the body. We all need blood; we all need oxygen. We all need water; we all need a nervous system. We are not exceptions to the rules. We are merely disobedient and risking death while disconnected from the body, our home. So, remember this the next time you fix your mouth to say, “I don’t need to go to church.” You are not unique; you are being disobedient to the word God gave Paul and the writers of Matthew and Acts.
If God promises to be in the midst of two or three people gathered in His name every single time, why would you not make it dozens, hundreds, or thousands? Is not a prayer spoken by a hundred heard more frequently than a prayer spoken by one? Are not a dozen perspectives more beneficial to you than a handful? Did you really learn nothing from church before you decided not to attend it?
The church is not faultless in their part on encouraging nomadic lifestyles and prodigal children. We have handled people wrong, handled the word of God wrong, and stumbled about in the dark as if we are not the light of the world. I understand. It seems we are more interested in church culture rather than Christ, and such movements have consequences.
However, I visited many churches in the last five years and there are plenty of churches worth attending. With respect, it’s just that you are unwilling to put in the effort to find the church home that works for you. You cling to church hurt, past experiences, and rumors and let the tactics of Satan himself, because only the devil doesn’t want you at church (it’s not logic), keep you away from home. You let all that noise keep you from God, who spoke and said He Himself would be in the midst of His people.
For every church shutting their doors to keep congregants trapped inside in order to pay tithes, there are numerous churches you do not have to pay fees to visit. They don’t need a deposit. You do not have to earn three times the rent. You don’t even have to furnish it. Most churches come furnished. Also, the pastor is not getting rich off the congregation! You just have to deal with people, and that may seem like a justifiable reason to not attend, but remember, you deal with people daily, and you are just fine when you do so, so why be so hard on the church?
Workers eventually get comfortable at a job. The homeless eventually get comfortable with the street. Inmates get comfortable inside jail houses. Victims somehow manage to find solace in a violent home. Yet, you can’t find a church home? At what point are we going to be honest with ourselves and admit we don’t want a church home?
We want to stay away from God’s people, because they are so judgmental. Yet, we ignore the hypocrisy in that action. We judge the church for judging. How is that Godly? Also, what happens when God decides to not attend to us because of our evil? Did we forget we consistently do what He hates? We all know to love our neighbors as ourselves, but practice is what makes love perfect in us.
For the past year, I have followed Pastor Rhema Eihemere from one church to another. He went from an established church in Lighthouse Church to establishing his own church, known as the Goodland Church. Little by little, my nomadic lifestyle was coming to a close. We started with launch nights, meeting once a month. Now, we gather once a week. There are no gaps in my visits to church.
You know what I’ve found? I’ve found that serving with my team every week is slowly restoring my faith in church and God’s hand inside the church. I am finding that my patience is being increased, as we navigate the issues that come with being a new church. I am growing resilient against the thoughts that tell me to pack it up and keep searching. I am finding home again.
I read my Bible with more expectation. I think of others when praying. I don’t resent missing a football game because we’re running late. I am here, I am willing to help, and that is the end of it.
My people check up on me. They’re getting know me and how I interact. We are slowly, but surely, becoming family. And we only started serving together regularly for the past two months. We are here for each other. We are home.
No one should have to tell us to go home. We should instinctively know it is time to go. America is full of churches, good churches, looking to open their arms to anyone and everyone. Be intentional about finding a church home. There are too many blessings being missed through this disobedience. Again, when two or more are gathered in His name, He is there. Find the place that gathers for Him. Reap the blessings of a church family. May God reveal Himself to you at the next visit.
See you at the crib,
Dario
Comments