From a Touchstone article by Christopher Jackson:
Consider a woman who has discovered her husband’s sexual unfaithfulness. Going to church would require flashing fake smiles at the greeters, and exclaiming, “Oh, I’m great!” to everyone who asks, “How are you?” Who could blame her for avoiding the faces and questions that all say, “You had better act happy! Don’t be a downer!”?
Sadly, many American churches unwittingly encourage their members to pretend to have it all together and be perfectly content. Even churches that vocally reject the prosperity gospel implicitly confirm that heresy. A kind of health-and-wealth theology has infected many churches, promulgated not so much by preaching or catechism as by the manipulative “How-are-you’s,” backslapping, and vigorous handshaking before and after services.
I suspect that those in the midst of difficulty avoid services not out of disdain for God’s Word, but out of great respect for the command against dishonesty. They know how their fellow Christians expect people at church to speak and act, and they know that they would be lying.
Lord, may it not be so in our church family.