I Have a Cold.  Should I Stay Home from Church?

Just about anyone who attends a decent church has probably had this conversation with himself:

“I have a cold.  I know that’s probably a bad confession, and I shouldn’t claim that I have it, but that’s just how it is.  Should I stay home from church?”

“Sure.  Other people stay home when they have colds.  Why shouldn’t you?”

“Church is the place to go when you’re sick, because the anointing is there.  Also, people there can pray with you in faith.”

“Yes, but you really don’t feel up to going to church.  You feel awful.  You don’t want to be rude to the pastor.  You might nod off during his message, and that would embarrass you and annoy him.”

“No, people at church love me.  They have compassion on the sick because they know that their Lord has compassion on the sick.  They wouldn’t mind if I sat in the back and brought my Kleenex.  Even if I did doze off, they would respect me for making the effort to show up at all.”

“Yeah, see how much they love you after they get what you have.  You know, I’m almost sure that you got this thing from Sister Van Grippe at the Wednesday night Bible study.  Now you’re just like she was.  You don’t want everyone else to get this stupid thing.  You should stay home.”

“Yes, but God’s Word is health to all my flesh.  I should be around the Word.”

“You can read your Bible at home.  You even have a very large document on your computer that covers divine healing from all kinds of angles.  You can build your faith by reading that.”

“Yes, but God says not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together in one place.”

“True, but if you pass out in the car on the way over, you’ll never make it to that place.”

“But I know that I always feel better when I’m around the anointing.  I’d be glad I went.”

“Maybe you would be glad you went, but the people sitting within a ten-seat radius of you would not be so glad.  They would not appreciate hearing you punctuate the pastor’s message every ten seconds with coughs, sniffles and sneezes.”

“That’s why they make cold medicines, silly.  Just take a gulp of Shotgun Panacea, that new long-lasting liquid they pitch on television after they tell you that it’s flu season and show you a person in bed next to a pile of tissues that’s on its way to getting as high as the Eiffel Tower.  It unclogs your stuffy head, dries your runny nose, stops your coughs, numbs your headache, lowers your fever, strengthens your body and cures nausea, diarrhea and dizziness, all in one non-narcotic gulp.  If you can finally figure out how to remove the child-proof cap, you can take one hit of that and no one will know you’re sick.”

“Yes, but you know full well that cold medicine doesn’t heal you.  You’ll still have your cold, and you can still pass the thing around.  Besides, you’ll give yourself away when you’re singing an octave lower than usual.”

“Okay, but they won’t know where they got it from!  Maybe they’ll just assume that they got it from Sister Van Grippe, too!”

“Yes, but you’ll know.  How will you stand yourself next week with that on your conscience?”

“It won’t be on my conscience.  Those people all have a right to believe God for their health.  We do believe in healing, remember?  If they come down with this, it's not my fault.”

“You believe in healing, too, and you’re having a struggle with this.  Why give other people the same challenge?  They might not be up for it either!”

“I'll try not to spread it around.  I won’t hold hands with anyone when we pray.  I won’t shake hands with anyone and I won’t hug the greeters, even the ones who don’t ask if you are OK with a hug before they hug you.  I’ll sit in the very back as far away as possible from everyone else.  If I have to lie on the floor, I’ll do it.  I’ll do whatever it takes to be around the anointing.”

“That’s not wise.  You’re pushing yourself when you’re already weak.  Straining your body by dragging it to church will only make you worse.  Your body is telling you that it needs rest.  Haven’t you heard about the studies that prove that the more you push yourself when you have an illness, the longer it will last?”

“Yeah, but the last time I stayed home, the Holy Spirit had the pastor call a healing line.  Don and Theresa had the same thing I had, and they got healed because they showed up at church.  I stayed home and stayed sick.  That stunk.”

“Look, skip all the talk about the anointing.  You’re obviously not in faith anyway, because you’re still sick.  So if you aren’t healed now, what makes you think that you’ll get healed there, even if they have a healing line?”

“It’s just easier to receive something by faith when you’re around a lot of people who are worshipping God.  A corporate anointing is there.  Maybe that’s the very thing I need.  I certainly can’t get that at home.”

“What you need is about 12 more hours of sleep so that you can get rid of this thing.  Don’t you know that doctors tell you to get lots of rest when you’re sick?”

“But faith without works is dead.  Healthy people go to church.  If I really believe that I’m healed, I should act healed and go to church.”

“You’ve been believing that you’re healed for the last 48 hours, so what makes you think you’re suddenly going to feel better just because you get out of your pajamas and drive to church?”

So who’s right?  At least when you argue with yourself, you know that you are right!  The problem is figuring out which “you” is right!

Let me start by saying that you shouldn’t get into bondage about this.  God will not blot your name out of the Lamb’s Book of Life and deny you before the holy angels just because you stay home and rest when you have a cold.  Nor will Jesus add unto you all the plagues in the book of Revelation if you go to church and someone else gets the plague that’s bothering you.

I don’t have a clear-cut “thus saith the Lord” answer for you from Scripture.  Really, either option is valid, but there are reasons for choosing one over the other.  The answer to this question depends on where you are in faith.

If you have resigned yourself to having the cold, there is no point in kidding yourself that you are in faith.  You may be better off just resting your body.  You know in your heart whether or not you’re really in faith.  If you’re not sure, read How to Tell If You’re in Faith or Not and find out!

In fact, if part of your problem is that you have overworked yourself, even in the ministry, you need to start respecting natural laws and get some rest.  Now would be a good time to start.

Don’t stay home because of any little ache or pain, though.  A good rule would be that if doesn’t keep you out of work, it shouldn’t keep you out of church.

On the other hand, if you are determined to receive your healing and stay in faith, I would do whatever it takes to get to church.  I believe that I have a biblical basis for this statement.  Almost everyone who received a healing from Jesus had to go where He was to receive healing from Him.  I understand that He lives in you now if you’re born again, but I’m talking about receiving from the anointing through the gifts of the Spirit.  At home, you can receive by faith, but you can’t take advantage of the corporate anointing in a live service.  You could watch an anointed service on some device, but no one in the service will lay hands on you if you are at home.

Consider the struggle that the paralyzed man and his friends went through to get to Jesus.  There was no room in the house, so they lowered him through the roof.  That was extreme faith!  Consider the blind men who had to do whatever they could to get to where Jesus was.  Consider the multitudes of seriously ill people who were brought to Jesus.  They went where the anointing was to receive from the anointing.  That is the general rule in the Bible.

If you want to receive healing by faith or you believe that you have already done so, go to church.  If you have to tank up on medicine and suck on cough drops and breath mints all service, do it.  Be around the Word, the anointing, and like-minded believers.  If you just have a cold, you don’t qualify for a house call from the elders unless you’re unable to get out of the house.

Don’t be too proud to go up in a healing line.  All of us have times when we are “down” and need the support of the Body.  Being around people of faith encourages you in your own faith.  They can agree with you for your healing.  As mentioned elsewhere, even if you’re already in faith, you can have people agree with you that you are healed.

What about the moral issue of staying home so that you don’t give someone else your cold?  I hope that it is safe to assume that you would not deliberately share a cold.  We know that people with contagious diseases went (or were brought to) Jesus because He healed EVERY kind of disease.  Leprosy was known to be contagious since at least the time of Moses.  There were laws about keeping lepers separate from everyone else.  There is no place in Scripture where the apostles or Jesus rebuked people for coming because their condition was contagious.  If Jesus didn’t rebuke people with contagious diseases who wanted healing then, you can be assured that He would not do so today, because He hasn’t changed.  You are welcome in any service as far as Jesus is concerned.

Especially if you go to a healing service, there will be people with contagious conditions there.  That’s part of life, both at work and at church.  If you can go to work in your present condition, you can go to church.  If you have a contagious condition, I believe that most pastors would prefer that you attend church and hear the Word.  People may not trip over each other trying to get near you, but most people have been in that position and can empathize with you.  Do what you can to avoid giving the cold to others, but not to the extreme where you draw attention to yourself.  For example, I suppose you could wear a surgical mask over your face to keep germs in.  Some people do that, and I respect that.  (If everyone at church is sick, others may don masks to keep the germs OUT!)  To be extreme, you could wear riot gear or a chemical hazardous material handling suit with a hood that makes you look like an astronaut.  These options would probably be effective in preventing the spread of your illness, but they would also call undue attention to you and look silly.  People report for work with colds and don’t resort to such measures.  If your measure would be mocked at work, don’t do it at church.

Perhaps you should not be the first to volunteer to lay hands on others when you have a cold yourself, but you should know that you still have the right to do it.  Most healing ministers can tell you stories about how awful they felt at a particular service where God still healed people through the laying on of their hands.  The question about ministering healing while you’re sick yourself is covered elsewhere.

I understand that having a cold is an awkward condition because of the possibility that it could spread to others.  Jesus understands that, too, and He is full of mercy and compassion toward you.  He wants you to be healed of that cold, and His healing provision covers colds and other nuisance diseases.  The more you feed on Scriptures about healing, the more you will be equipped to stand in faith against such pesky common illnesses.

People in church should be compassionate, too.  I attended a faith church where dressing up was the expectation – especially if you were on the worship team.  But I had just been in the hospital with a kidney stone.  They pumped me up with water and I gained about 15 pounds in a day and a half.  I didn’t have any pants that could get around me other than my beach pants!  So I played the piano in my beach pants!  If people are like Jesus, they will be glad you’re there rather than sitting at home just because you have no clothing that fits.  However, that was the only time I ever wore beach pants on the platform!

Please understand that this topic is about having a cold.  It is not about being in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital.  I am not saying that you should rip out all your life-support tubes and run to church if you are critically ill.  More serious conditions dictate a visit from the elders to pray the prayer of faith over you.