A very passionate minister was visiting a little country church. He began his address with a shocking reminder: “Everyone in this parish is going to die.” The evangelist was surprised to notice a man in the front row smiling up at him. “What is so amusing?” the visiting preacher asked. “I’m not in this parish,” the man replied. “I’m just visiting my sister for the weekend.”
Recently, I asked Mr. Google for the best ways to boost my physical and mental health. He reminded me of the benefits of exercise and decent sleep, of eating fresh fruits and veggies, of not abusing drugs or alcohol, and not smoking—something I quit doing when I was ten after being a pack-a-day smoker for a day. Dr. Google also prescribed the benefits of spending less time online and more time with actual people, and of yoga and meditation. And then I googled Harvard School of Public Health—church attendance. What I found amazed me, and I don’t amaze easily.
Tyler VanderWeele, Director of the human flourishing program at Harvard, poses a question, “If you could take one pill a week that would reduce your chance of dying by 20 to 30% over a 15-year period, would you take it?” “The good news,” he says, “is that this miracle drug—…specifically regular church attendance—is …just a short drive away.”
Whatever you believe about faith and church, you don’t expect a Harvard professor to prescribe it as a tonic for what ails you. But study after study shows that those who attend church services once a week or more are happier, healthier, and live longer than those who don’t. Rebecca McLaughlin, author of How Church Could Literally Save Your Life, writes, “If any other practice had the same effects, it would be widely advertised in public health campaigns.” Rebecca presents scientific evidence that weekly church attendance guards against depression, increases mental and physical well-being, and extends life expectancy.
Of course, many today see church as outdated—even harmful. They’d rather watch cheese mold than attend church. Put off by racism, joyless Christians, or hypocrisy, they say, “Are you kidding? Surely these statistics can be explained away as community support, just like Sunday soccer.”
VanderWeele disagrees, “Social support is critical,” he writes, “yet this accounts for only about a quarter of the effect.” McLaughlin agrees: “Parents who join the same people each week to cheer for their kids’ sports team won’t see the same level of benefit,” she writes.
“We humans seem to thrive when we worship together….If you want to boost your health and add years to your life, why not try church?”
Rebecca believes the results of less churchgoing have been “measurably bad.” They have led to “more loneliness, drug abuse, alcoholism, less volunteering, less giving to those in need, reduced life expectancy, and more suicides,” she says. But church can turn that tide. “Weekly churchgoers are 50 percent less likely to die from suicide, drugs, or alcohol than people who never attend. So, if you or your children are struggling with mental health or battling addiction, why not join a local church? It could be just what the doctor ordered.”
McLaughlin says,
“One of the strange claims Jesus made about himself is that he is the doctor we all need.”
Regardless of how long, happy, or healthy our earthly life is, unless Jesus returns, 100% of us, regardless of our health, are going to die. Yet the growing evidence to the question, “Can church save your life?” seems to be a resounding “Yes.”
My agnostic friend Chris and his son are now taking the doctor’s prescription. They’re attending church and encountering Christianity’s wild claim that anyone who puts his or her trust in Jesus will be brought safely through death to everlasting life.
Reminds me of the little kid who when asked by his Sunday school teacher how to get to heaven, said, “You gotta be dead.”
