The last leg of the International Gathering of Eagles Conference - Europe 2017 that took us to England, Ireland and Sweden was just gladly concluded. On Tuesday May 16, I took a connecting flight from Stockholm to Copenhagen, Denmark on Scandinavia airline to join Air Canada to Toronto.

Seated on my right side in the aircraft was a young middle age man. In my characteristic way of seizing every opportunity to share the gospel and in line with the theme of our Conference which was 'Redeeming the Time', as soon as we settled down I exchanged a few pleasantries with him. I asked if he is from Sweden or Denmark and he said that he is from Sweden but works in Denmark. I told him we just had a church conference in Sweden and gave him a brochure of the ministry.  I asked if he goes to church but he replied with a capital 'No.' I advised him to ensure he goes to church. Then he asked me the unexpected thunderbolt question 'Why should I go to church?'

To be honest I was not expecting that question. Like Nehemiah in the court of the king I quickly said a prayer - Oh Lord help me!
Prior to our discussion he had brought out his laptop and he was working on an excel sheet while I was reading a book titled 'The Legend Morris Cerullo'

 I asked him if he ever went to school?  He looked at me and smiled, nodded his head and said ’Yes.' I asked,why? He replied, to study engineering. I told him that incidentally I also studied engineering but in addition I do go to church. I further mentioned, people go to school to acquire knowledge and skill about matters of life to earn a living. In the same way people go to church to learn and acquire knowledge about spiritual matters that determine where they will spend eternity. In a nutshell, secular and regular schools teach about physical matters while churches teach about spiritual matters.
'What do you mean by spiritual matters’? My new friend questioned. In response, I asked for his name and he told me. Let us call him Jack.
I asked him, what is Jack made off?
‘What do you mean, what am I made off’? He asked with a curious look at me.
I said he should realize that the person called Jack is made up of components.
‘What do you mean I am made of components’? I seemed to be getting used to 'what do you mean' so I turned the tide on him.
‘What do you know about matter as an engineer’? ‘What are the components of matter’? ‘What is matter made of and how do they exist’? I asked. 
I still don't know the relevance of matters to going to church? He said apparently getting interested in the discourse.

Here is the relevance.Matters are made of atoms and they exist as solid, liquid and gas. Atom is made of proton,neutron and electron I said emphatically.  I continued, the combination of protons and neutrons is called nucleus, which is the most important of the atom. I emphasized that man is made up of a similar set of components - spirit, soul and body. The combination of spirit and soul is called the inner man which can be seen as the equivalent of the nucleus though  is unseen and the most important.

I explained that as people go to school to learn about physical matters, people also go to church to learn about more important things - spiritual matters which are more important than physical matters as the spirit is more important than the body.
He asked again, ‘Why is the spirit more important than the body’?
I replied, people die and their physical body will be on earth but their spiritual component - the inner man will return to where it came from. As atoms cannot be destroyed but can be converted to another form, at death human body will decay and be converted to manure but the inner man cannot decay but will put on a new body. 
I continued that among other things, the church teaches how to live well on earth so that people’s spirit can live well forever in the best place called heaven. Moreover, the church is where to learn about heaven and hell and how the earth is a forum and platform to use one’s talent and plan for the next phase of life after death.
Therefore, failure to go to church will render you ignorant about spiritual matters. And if you have not made a good choice on earth about going to heaven, the judge of the earth will not see your ignorance as an excuse because every man is giving an opportunity to learn not just about physical matters but spiritual matter. Hence, the choice not to bother about spiritual matter or use the time to learn about spiritual things and do other things is not a good choice.

‘So what do you want me to do’? He questioned. I suggested to him ‘when you get to Denmark find a church and go there, tell them you want to learn not only about physical things in life but about spiritual things too’. I also mentioned that although there are many other places where people learn about spiritual matters but only the church has the best answers.
He thanked me for sparing the time to share my thoughts and I answered, ‘you are welcome’!

I want to say 'You are welcome' to share this to those who are wondering why should I go to church.

Dr Amos Dada is the District Superintendent of Christ Apostolic Church Bethel Canada. Convener of International Gathering of Eagles Conference and President, Canadian Institute of Leadership and Development. Www.igoeministry.com; .www.canadaleadership.com and www.cacbethel.com.