Why do we go to church?

I picked up the book “Radical” by David Platt. He is the pastor at The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama and The Secret Church. This book got me thinking about church at least churches in the United States. His book starts out talking about the “churches” he went to and led in other countries. He shared stories of home churches in Asia where some members had walked or biked for miles to meet in small secret rooms to worship with a handful of other believers hoping to not get caught. They put their lives on the line to worship together. They knew if they were exposed they could face prison or death but still they went because they believed and loved the Lord enough to face the risk.
Here in the good ol’ U S of A we take that for granted me included. We get up on Sunday mornings, drink our coffee, put on our Sunday best, get into our air conditioned cars and drive a short 10 or 15 miles to sit in church, listen to the pastor half-heartedly and hope he gets done soon so we can get a table at the restaurant before it fills up with others getting out of church. We give our hour of time to God and go on about our business but did we really worship? Why do we go to church? What did we get out of it or better yes what did God get out of it? Have we made our churches into an entertainment industry? We have to be moved by the music or some wonderful video shown before the service starts. We have to be warm in winter and cool in summer. The chairs have to be comfortable with plenty of leg room and please make sure the sermon isn’t too controversial so no one is offended. Does church mean anything to us here anymore? So many pastors have made a point to avoid controversial topics like same-sex marriage, co-habitating, pornography, adultery and many other subjects that might cause someone to get indignant. They want people in the seats. They are afraid if they upset anyone they will look for another church that says exactly what they want to hear and I have to confess I was right there with them.
I write this only to ask the question and maybe cause us (me included) to think about what can we do to change this. We are so close to losing our ability to worship freely and we don’t even see it. There are stories in the news about people arrested for preaching on the street, people fined for holding bible studies in their homes and now the military bans bibles in the work place. Will we have to lose our right to worship before we appreciate it? If the penalty for getting caught is prison or worse would you still worship?