... WHY GO TO CHURCH?

A very sensitive young woman asked her therapist once if he went to church.  My friend said, no, he had never found a minister who really addressed his concerns.  She was astonished!  “You don’t go to church to hear the minister!  That’s like going to see what kind of clothes other people are wearing!” 

“Well, how do you see it?”

“You go church to be with other people who are struggling to find the same kinds of things you are struggling to find – to find depth for their lives.”

My friend said he thought about this for a long time.  From this perspective, a good sermon might even be a distraction.   Although we may not be fully aware of it, we are in church to be with others who seek to lay aside the trivialities and obsessions of our culture, and embrace a different level of life.

The congregation consists of many different kinds of people: rich, poor; educated, uneducated; intelligent, ignorant; easy-going, up-tight; polite, rude; kind, abrasive.  We are united not by our virtues or assets, or even by our faults, but by our longing for something better – for depth, love, forgiveness.