Why Go to Church

November 28, 2016

Why do people continue to go to church?

We gather to experience community. The feeling of belonging is a human need. The church is one kind of community that meet a basic human need. Church is a place to make friends, to support others and feel their support. Supportive relationships is a gift to be received.

We go to church to enact a drama of meaning. The Biblical stories place us within a narrative of significance. Through ritual, symbolism, and ideas, we place ourselves within a drama of life as scripted by spiritual experiences of our ancestors in the faith. We rehearse their stories and remember where we have come from. We appreciate the struggles they have gone through which have helped shape who we are.

We listen to texts from our spiritual genealogy. We hear the poetry of our Scriptures. (Most of the Bible should be heard as poetry, metaphor, and analogy.) We affirm the propaganda of life found in our sacred texts. 

We hear interpretations of our spiritual literature from our homileticians. We take time to discuss those interpretations together as we learn from each other.

We use the medium of music to celebrate the joys of life and the goodness of relationships. We use metaphors and poetic language to speak and sing of humane ideals. We use words like redemption (freedom), grace (affirmation of humanity), sin (destructive behavior and attitudes), salvation (wholeness), reconciliation (oneness), hallelujah (literally, “praise the Lord” – a way of saying we celebrate the creative source of life), repentance (a. a returning to the source; b. an expansion of the small mind into the Large Mind), faith (an orientation of basic trust in life), atonement (at-one-ment), resurrection (a transformed existence), kingdom of God/heaven (the reality of peace), etc.

We go to church to affirm the humanistic values that many secular people live by. Our Christian Tradition not only celebrates those values, but also points to a transcendent dimension to life from which those values originate.

The Great Christian Tradition has many sub-traditions. I grew up in the sub-tradition called Protestantism; and a sub-tradition of that called Baptist; and a sub-tradition of that called Southern Baptists. I eventually transferred into the sub-tradition called Presbyterian (a sub-tradition of the Reformed Theological Tradition). I made that move to be part of a liberal sub-set of the Christian Church. (Even Presbyterians have sub-traditions with different locations on the theological continuum.) The sub-tradition I belong to is ecumenical and inter-faith. We cooperate with Lutherans, Episcopalians, Catholics, etc. We have dialogue with Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. We work with non-believers (atheists, agnostics, secularists, etc) for the good of humanity. We believe in God. And we believe that our concerns for justice, equality, dignity, ecological responsibility, etc., comes from our belief in God as it has come to us through the Jewish tradition and the Jesus movement. 

I understand that some people cannot relate to churchy terminology and see no reason to participate in Christian worship. Some have had bad experiences in churches. They were part of a judgmental type of church or a branch of Christianity that has not progressed to be receptive of modern science. Some people have grown up outside the Church and see no reason to enter the Church. Some people see life as complete without any need to believe in God. I understand. 

For myself, I am identified with the historic religious movements that hear the call to work for justice, inclusion, equality, progressive education, affirmation of scientific discoveries, and the search for wholeness in life. Through the lens of ancient stories, symbols, metaphors, poetry, and texts, I interact with the contemporary world in ways that seek to bring people together celebrate diversity and enjoy world.