Research From Harvard Recommends Surprising Health Hack: Go To Church.

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Imagine someone hands you a box of pills. You open it, and 52 neatly laid out tablets meet your eyes. If you’re young and healthy, you might think, I don’t need these. You either throw them out or stash them in a box somewhere for future use. If you’re older or suffer from chronic physical or mental illness, you may be more intrigued. What if this is just the medication you’re looking for?

You read the printed information in the pillbox and it claims this medication—if taken at least weekly—could elongate your life expectancy by seven years, significantly increase your chance of happiness, and substantially reduce the likelihood you’ll suffer from depression.

Thinking this is too good to be true, you check the side effects. They’re listed as a greater sense of meaning, greater likelihood of volunteering, and more generosity toward those in need. Once again, you’re skeptical. This must be a scam. You turn to the back of the box to see where this information comes from. There you find this medication has been extensively tested by none other than the Harvard School of Public Health.

Would you take the pills?

Miracle Drug of Church Attendance

In a 2016 article for USA Today, Harvard School of Public Health professor Tyler VanderWeele and journalist John Siniff posed this question:

If one could conceive of a single elixir to improve the physical and mental health of millions of Americans—at no personal cost—what value would our society place on it?

Going a step further, if research quite conclusively showed that when consumed just once a week, this concoction would reduce mortality by 20% to 30% over a 15-year period, how urgently would we want to make it publicly available?

VanderWeele is director of the human flourishing program at Harvard. He’s a literal world expert on what’s good for you and me. So, what’s this magic potion he’s found?

We may think VanderWeele has conjured a health-enhancing drug. Perhaps he’s found a side-effect-free diet pill? Or some safe substance that will make you want to exercise? Or maybe yoga, meditation, or some novel superfood? But VanderWeele goes on: “The good news is that this miracle drug—religion, and more specifically regular church attendance—is already in reach of most Americans. In fact, there’s a good chance it’s just a short drive away.”

Whatever your beliefs, my guess is that you wouldn’t expect a Harvard professor to write you this prescription: “Church. Take once a week (or more) for best effects.” But study after study has shown that people who attend religious services once a week or more are happier, healthier, and longer-lived than those who don’t. If any other practice had the same effects, it would be widely advertised in public health campaigns.

Study after study has shown that people who attend religious services once a week or more are happier, healthier, and longer-lived than those who don’t.

I wonder how that information lands for you.

Many today see church as outdated, unnecessary, or even harmful. Maybe you identify as “spiritual, but not religious.” You’d rather climb a mountain or gaze up at the stars than go to church. Perhaps you’ve been put off by racism, abuse, hypocrisy, or hateful attitudes. Church is the last place you’d want to show up on a Sunday.

Perhaps you grew up in a different religious tradition. At this point, you don’t regularly attend religious services, but it’d feel offensive for someone to invite you to church. Or maybe you identify as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular,” and your first thought on hearing about the benefits of church is that they must be explained by community support.

If one of these describes you, I’m honored you’d take time to read this article. You’re likely someone who thinks carefully and wants to see the data before you make a decision. My hope is that the data in this book will give you food for thought.

Maybe you feel less skeptical and more wistful when you hear talk of church. Perhaps you weren’t raised in church, but you’ve seen how meaningful it is to other people, and you feel a little robbed. Perhaps you used to go to church, but then you moved to a new city and haven’t found a new church. Perhaps you stopped attending during COVID-19 and never got back into the habit. Perhaps you went through a divorce, or changed your job, or your kids had Sunday morning soccer games, and church quietly slid off your weekly calendar. Perhaps you’re single and the church you went to seemed to revolve around married couples. Maybe you found yourself out of step with others at your church politically and you stopped attending. Or you became depressed or struggle with anxiety, and making it to church on Sundays just feels too hard.

If one of these scenarios describes you, you’re not alone. These are some of the reasons why, in the first quarter of the 21st century, 40 million Americans (around 12 percent of the population) have stopped attending church.

If you don’t see yourself as a religious person, you might think this is good news. Many think that less religion means less bigotry and more happy, psycholog­i­cally healthy, socially responsible citizens. But the results of what has been called “the great dechurching” in America have been measurably bad. Less churchgoing has led to lower mental health and happiness, more loneliness, more drug abuse, more alcoholism, less volunteering, less giving to those in need, reduced life expectancy, and more suicides. Even the most skeptical experts acknowledge that declining church attendance in the United States and (over a longer time period) across the West has had devastating side effects.

How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life

In chapters 1 and 2 of How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life, I reckon with the data on the mental and physical health benefits of weekly church attendance. These results can’t be explained away simply by social contact. As VanderWeele­ explains, “Social support is critical, yet this accounts for only about a quarter of the effect.”

The majority of religious-service participants in the studies have been churchgoers, but most studies don’t differentiate between different kinds of religious services. So, for instance, people going to Jewish synagogues once a week or more report benefits similar to those attending Christian churches. But the religious element seems to be vital. Parents who join the same people each week to cheer for their kids’ sports team won’t see the same level of benefit. We humans seem to thrive when we worship together.

Parents who join the same people each week to cheer for their kids’ sports team won’t see the same level of benefit. We humans seem to thrive when we worship together.

In chapter 3, I look at the moral effects of going to church each week. However you identify religiously, my guess is that you see altruism (whether in the form of giving money or volunteering time to charitable causes) as beneficial for society. But why do we think caring for the poor, sick, and vulnerable is good?

This may seem like a strange question. Whether we realize it or not, it turns out that the seemingly self-evident truth that all human life is equally valuable—regardless of a person’s age, sex, nationality, income level, or abilities—came to us from Chris­tian­ity. If Christianity isn’t true, we aren’t left with a better secular foundation for our core belief that all humans are equal. We’re left with that ethical rug pulled out from underneath our feet.

Finally, in chapter 4, I guide readers to face the truth that haunts all of our lives. However healthy you and I may be—however much we work out, eat well, sleep, avoid smoking, get annual health checks, or even go to church—we’ll all end up as corpses before long. So, in the book’s last chapter, I look at Chris­tian­ity’s wild claim that anyone who puts his or her trust in Jesus will be carried right through death to everlasting life with him.

You may think this is simply not believable today. But VanderWeele is one of many world-class scholars who would challenge that assumption. Rather than dismissing Chris­tian­ity out of hand, VanderWeele suggests that “any educated person should, at some point, have critically examined the claims for Chris­tian­ity and should be able to explain why he or she does, or does not, believe them.”

Here’s Your Prescription

If you’ve never been to church with any regularity before, my hope is that this article or my book will make you want to try it out. If you were once a regular attender, perhaps you’ll think of coming back. On the last page of the book, you’ll find a website and a QR code that will help you get connected to a church in your area, and you’ll see a list of questions frequently asked by those considering going to church (What can I expect? What should I wear?).

If you hate church and everything it stands for, I’m thankful you’ve read this far. I wrote another book especially for you. It’s called Confronting Christianity, and it looks at 12 of the biggest reasons you may have for not considering the Christian faith.

If you’re not sure what to believe, but you need more hope and love and meaning in your life, my prayer is that How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life will function as an invitation to look for a local church where you could find out more about who Jesus is and maybe start attending regularly. If church is, as VanderWeele claims, something of a “miracle drug,” why not start popping that pill now?