Coming from a family who almost never went to church as I was growing up, I can tell you my husband and I will not make the same mistake when we have children. Going to church is vital to family life for several reasons. I want to give you a list of observations from my own life experience on the benefits of attending and the disadvantages of not:

1) Going to church builds your faith and helps you develop a better understanding of God.

The act of going to church alone won't lead to salvation--only accepting Jesus will do that. Being ignorant of what the Bible says however is not going to help your family. My family lived near the poverty level for years because my parents were not aware that God wants people to prosper both spiritually and financially--and that the Bible has practical advice of accomplishing that.

My husband and I began attending church on a regular basis shortly after we got engaged--within a few short years our lives have completely changed. Today, our income is triple what it was when we first started, and I will likely be able to "retire" in the sense of needing a job before the age of 30. The only thing we're doing differently from other people is trusting God and having faith in what He says in the Bible. We both had access to a Bible from a young age, but it's very different to learn from a pastor who has a calling on his life to teach people.

2) Going to church gives you a real community.

Technology has both brought us all together in some ways and separated us in others. You may know people half-way across the planet and yet not have a clue of the first names of your neighbors. When it comes down to it however, people need other people. When you're isolated, you're worse off in a lot of ways. Your problems seem bigger because you don't have other people to put them in perspective.

You can watch church on television, but there's an atmosphere that you will not get. As a broadcast camera operator for our church, I even notice a major difference between being an observer through a monitor and a participant in a service. That dynamic fills a deep need that many people have in today's society.

I've also found that as you get to know people at your church, the friendships a person can develop are unlike anything I had found in school and later in the corporate world. Going in I had a trust in God but not so much a trust in most people. I had a lot of hurt built up in me from previous experiences with people I couldn't trust, but those feelings slowly faded over time the more I was around people who genuinely cared.

3) Going to church gives you an outlet to help other people.

One of the best ways to put your own problems in perspective is to help someone else. Most churches constantly have opportunities to reach out to your local area. Our church has a specific set of projects each year. Different ministries of the church pick projects and work on them together in teams. It's great to do unexpected things for people without wanting anything in return or even them knowing where it came from.

One of my favorites was buying backpacks full of school supplies for an entire elementary school for them to have their first day. It never made the local news because publicity was not the point. While it's possible for one wealthy individual to do something similar, most people can only get involved in these big random acts of kindness as a group.

4) People who attend church statistically live longer.

In 2006, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center did a study that analyzed actuarial death rates and found that weekly worship service attendance could add up to three years to a person´s life!

For a variety of reasons, including the previous three, other studies have shown that people who attend church live longer and healthier lives compared to people who don't. If you are looking at a purely practical standpoint, I hope this is enough for you. The Bible has hundreds of instructions to do certain things because of their benefits to us as people-to fellowship with other believers is one of them.

I hope these reasons have been helpful to you. If you're considering attending church for the first time or attending church more often, I can tell you you're making a right choice for you and your family.