Attending Church Makes You Healthier

A weekly church visit may do more than an apple a day according to an article published by Harvard entitled, “Why Public Health Should Attend to the Spiritual Side of Life.”

Several studies highlighted within the article authored by Tyler VanderWeele, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, display how regularly attending church services produces incredible overall health benefits.

“Looking at the data we have on religious participation and health, it seems reasonable to encourage those who already identify with a religious tradition to participate in communal religious life,” VanderWeele wrote.

If health officials ignore the fact that church attendance impacts an individuals well being, they “are neglecting an important health resource, and will be leaving the population in poorer health.”

“It is time for the neglect of religion in public health conversations to change,” he stated.

VanderWeele went so far as to note that public health advice and education for those training to be a doctor actually ignores the benefits of religious attendance, but, why?

“The standard narrative for the neglect,” VanderWeele writes, is that it, “sometimes seems to be that ‘there is not actually that much research around the impact of spirituality on health.’ This, however, is simply not the case.”

Weekly religious service attendance is associated with “lower mortality risk, lower depression, less suicide, better cardiovascular disease survival, better health behaviors, and greater marital stability, happiness, and purpose in life.”

Citations and additional evidence was given supporting how weekly church attendance is associated with “lower mortality risk, lower depression, less suicide, … better health behaviors, and greater marital stability, happiness, and purpose in life.”

This is great news amongst the skyrocketing numbers in people giving their lives to the Lord in America, increased Bible sales throughout the country and churches being flooded with new comers. At the same time, there is a staggering amount of Americans suffering from health conditions like no other point in history.

Conclusion

There’s a whole lot more to being a part of a local church but it is definitely worth noting just how incredible it is that the command given by God to “not forsake the assembly of yourselves” doesn’t just impact us spiritually but physically as well.

As believers, regularly communing with other followers of Christ is an act of obedience to God.

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