I haven’t been to church in three weeks. My parents would be so disappointed in me if they knew.
I’m part of a lovely church. The sermons challenge me, the people are friendly, and the music leaves nothing to be desired. I feel at home there. But, as I’ve mentioned before, the idea of putting myself out there, of opening myself up to other people, terrifies me. So I haven’t. I’ve gone to church merely as a consumer. I’ve received the Word. Been served communion each week. Listened to the worship.
And it no longer feels like enough. I haven’t been to church these past few weeks not because I don’t believe. Not because I don’t care. Not because I don’t want to worship my creator God. I haven’t gone because by consuming church I feel like an impostor.
Which has me thinking, What is church? Is it a place we go to consume, to receive from God and from each other? To bask in God’s goodness and presence?
Or is it a place we go to give, to worship God, to encourage one another?
Is the Sunday worship service the time when you’re most renewed in your faith and in your Christian community, or does that happen Monday through Saturday when you’re connecting to God and creation in other innumerable ways?
Certainly I view church and the role of community in my life differently than I did several years ago. I would imagine my view in five or ten years may look drastically different than my view today.
But I’m wondering, why do you go to church? What is church to you?
Photo courtesy: little blue hen
I appreciate your thoughts Kristen. Our society as a whole is strongly consumeristic (is that a word?). And of course that does tend to trickle down into the church, unfortunately. But to be honest, we all have to fight the battle as believers. I think Worship/Sabbath gatherings become less of an issue if we can all come to the place of understanding that we are all supposed to be on mission through out the rest of the week.
Thanks, Andrew. I agree. It seems we have similar ideals about the Church's purpose and our collective role in it.