Why Do We Go to Church

By Sherri Karnes on September 19, 2017

My last blog sparked some conversation, though not here in the comment section but there was conversation. The conversations that did happen left me with several things to think about. Before we go on a journey about what type of church we need or what type of church we fit into or what’s wrong with churches that they only welcome like-minded people. Before we dissect the church from which we came, maybe we should talk about why we go to church. I have thought about this for a while but I am not sure I have an answer. I can give several reasons for why I go to church but I don’t know if they are the correct reasons that should drive a person to go to church. I go to church because I am a Christian. That’s simple enough I suppose. It says in the Bible, Hebrews 10:25, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. So I go to church because the Bible says I should. That is certainly reason enough to go but I really don’t think it is reason enough to continue going to church. So I have to dig a little deeper about this why we go to church stuff. I have friends who I know attend church because it is a socially accepted place to be with the one you love regardless of who it is you love. Now that isn’t true in most churches but the churches I have attended in the last 15 years that has been true. I suspect that some attend church because it is what they were taught to do. Those of us that were raised in “Christian homes” and were told that if you are a Christian you must attend church, often have too much guilt to deal with if we choose not to go to church. Some people go because it gives them purpose. We feel the need to serve our brothers and sisters or our community in some way and the church provides that opportunity for us. Some of us go because we sing in the choir and we like to sing and we like belonging to a group. Some of us go because it is not only a calling but a vocation as well and we are paid to be there. There are probably as many reasons why people go to church as there are people sitting in the pews but I am not convinced that those are the reasons that God calls us to join together in a body of believers. I am also convinced that those reasons alone will not keep us in a church. We should come to bring glory to God and to worship God but what does that look like. I come to a sanctuary and I worship God but how? This is not about style. It’s not about the music I sing when I worship or whether or not I raise my hands to God in worship. Worship is why we come. Worship is our response to God loving us. God calls us to worship and we worship by responding to what God has called forth in us. What does God call forth in you? What does God call to within you? What answers when God calls? So if we are called to gather together to worship God then why is it that our church experience is too often determined by our response not to God but to the other people in the church. Why do other people determine my ability to worship God? Why, if I am angry with people in my church do I say I am angry with God? Why when people hurt me in the church do I decide that going to church is no longer an acceptable practice. If those things are happening in our worship services then maybe we need to redefine what church is. Church isn’t about you or me but it’s about God and worshipping God. We are there to find sanctuary, which is defined, as a safe place of refuge. Most churches are anything but a safe place of refuge. The act of worship is an act of surrender and an act of abandoning my self into the hands of a loving, merciful God. How can I do that if there is no sanctuary in the church? If I am not safe to worship then how do I find sanctuary and worship? We should come to church knowing that we are in sanctuary. We are safe and we can take refuge there. I need sanctuary but for the moment that sanctuary is my home.

Enter in to the sanctuary

Lay all your burdens down

Bring all that you carry

Lift your eyes to Heaven

Leave it all behind

Rest in this sweet comfort

And call on your Savior

Singing….Praise Him

Praise Him

Praise Him

Praise Him

Lift your hands in sweet surrender

Let all your sorrows slip away

No more to remember

Lift your eyes to Heaven

Leave it all behind

Rest in this sweet comfort

And call on your Savior

Singing….Praise Him

Praise Him

Praise Him

Praise Him

Choosing a Church Community

This week my thoughts have turned to church and what people really want in a church community. We have just left a church that we have been a part of for the last 6 years so it seems appropriate to me that we do some soul searching regarding a church community. Finding Your Community in Denomination: Most people I know begin their search for a church by looking first at the churches in their community that are of a certain denomination. If you are a Baptist, you go looking for a Baptist church. If you are a Pentecostal you probably go looking for a Pentecostal church. This would be a great place to start except for the fact that many mainline denominational churches are not open and affirming. Many of my friends and myself included cannot just go out and decide to attend all the Baptist or Methodist or Church of God’s in our area because most of those churches are only open and welcoming to their own kind. If you are white, straight and conservative then you most likely can choose any of those churches. If you are not those things then your church searching gets narrowed down quite bit right from the start. So if looking for a church community by denomination is not going to work where do you turn next? Finding Your Community in Style: If I cannot choose my church community based on denomination then I can begin by looking for churches that have a style of worship that fits my own. For me, that style would involve contemporary worship with modern worship music. I would also look for a church that had relevant teaching and preaching. The teaching/preaching would need to be from an educated viewpoint. I grew up in churches that did not have educational requirements for those that pastored or preached. As a teenager I began attending a Presbyterian Church where the pastors were educated and I found that I preferred and educated Pastor to one that was not educated. As I look in my community for such churches it becomes clear that I am most likely not welcome in those churches either. They are heavy on the “family” values and they cater most of their activities and services to that wonderful American family of Mom, Dad and 2.2 children and maybe a cat or dog as a pet. It is probably helpful if you live in a nice sub-division and fall firmly in the middle class range of income. When my friends show up to these churches they are welcomed until they realize that the guy they were coming with is not just their best buddy and the little girl they bring is their daughter and not their niece or nephew. So much for looking for a church with a contemporary worship service. So it seems that I cannot just look for a church that matches my preferred denomination. I cannot simply go looking for a church that matches the style of worship that I prefer either. What happens is that I begin searching for a church based on who will let me in the door. Something inside of me says this is not how we should have to find a church. I find myself in a church that is much further away that what I would like to drive. I find myself in a church that sings songs that I don’t necessarily like. The preaching may or may not be anywhere near what my beliefs are. They have rituals that I don’t agree with and their liturgy doesn’t quite match what I believe but hey, they let me in the door. So here I am in a church that I would never have chosen based on doctrine, theology, style of worship or use of liturgy. Where do I go from here? How do I find a place in this church? Will I find a place? Are my thoughts welcome here? What happens when I join the church and have to agree to their basic beliefs that may be in direct standing to my own personal beliefs? I am going to explore some of these questions in my blog in the coming days. I think there are some important issues that need discussed regarding what happens when people join a church based not on mutual agreements in doctrine and belief and worship style but rather they join because it is the only church within driving distance that will welcome them without asking them to change.

I am reading a book which talks about what is or isn’t the holiest hour of the week for church folks. The author does not believe it is Sunday morning at 11am or 1030 or whatever times your church has their Sunday worship service. I have thought about that statement and how very true it is at least of the churches I have been a member of. The last church I was a member in I even heard it said that you should leave your baggage at the door that church is no place for all that personal stuff. Now you need to know a little more about that church in order to appreciate that comment. We had a way of piling our baggage up in the sanctuary and then prying it all open and throwing it at one another so that statement about leaving baggage at the door might have been some good advice for that church. However it does seem wrong that the church is not the place for our baggage and for our honesty. Why is it that we put on our Sunday best before entering the church doors? Why is it when someone has the audacity to show up “just as the are” which is what the website and Facebook group says that the church welcomes, that people talk about them and whisper about them in not so good ways? The church really doesn’t want you to show up just as you are. They really would rather that you put on your Sunday best and leave your baggage at the door. Well, I don’t want to do church that way anymore. I don’t want to dig through my closet for my Sunday best. I want to come as I am. I want to bring my baggage and I want to dump it on the altar. I want to hear what the other church people really think. I want honesty. Do you think that after Jesus would preach to the large crowds of people that he and his disciples would go back to their campsite or upper room and talk about the people in the crowd? Do you think they were only honest when it was just the few of them? I hope not. I hope my faith is built on something more than pretty Sunday bonnets and nice pressed dressed pants. It is my experience that pretty Sunday services rarely if ever change our life for the better. I don’t often meet Jesus in that hour on Sunday where everyone is on their best behavior and all cleaned up. I have seen Jesus on Monday evening when friends have gathered to talk about what a long day they had a work. I’ve met up with Jesus at hospitals where people show up just as they are because when that person you love is in an emergency situation, your Sunday best is not what you need. You come as you are. You often run as you are. You don’t stop to make it all pretty. What is it that makes us more honest in that situation than when we meet up for church on Sunday morning? I think we are trying to dress up for God. We really don’t believe He loves us just as we are or that He made us just as we are or we wouldn’t try to dress up what we are. We know that person laying in the emergency room loves us no matter what so we come running just as we are. We might be dirty and tired but we come running. So I want that in a church. I want to know that I am loved just as I am. I don’t want to put on some Sunday Bonnet. Maybe everyone else will still be in his or her Sunday best but if I come then I am coming as I am. Just as I am.

Why We Need A Savior.........Or Do We?

I was browsing through some random blogs tonight when I came across one that was titled “Atone”. One of the articles was regarding Rob Bell who wrote “Love Wins”. From what I could tell it was simply a restating of what others had said in their review of the book. The big issue they had with Rob Bell was his questioning of whether or not hell exists and if it does why would that be acceptable to God. The blog took issue with this because they feel it negates the need for a Savior. So I have thought about that………what did Jesus come to save us from if he did? Did he really only come to save us from an afterlife spent in Hell? If that is what he came to do then why didn’t he just say that. Why all the teaching about how to live this life. It would seem to me that Jesus was more interested in life here on earth than he was in some afterlife. So I don’t think he came to save us from Hell. So do we really need a Savior? I think so……we need a savior to love us because we loathe ourselves. We need a Savior to forgive us because we can’t forgive ourselves. We need a Savior to listen to us because we don’t have a clue how to listen whether it’s to ourselves or to others. We need a Savior to walk with us because we so often run others off who would walk with us. We need a Savior for many reasons but I don’t find the afterlife to be a real compelling reason for a Savior. We need a Savior to redeem us from well…us. We have turned on ourselves and we have separated ourself from the part of us that recognizes God. We can’t see the good in ourselves so how could we ever recognize the God in us…….we are made in God’s image but we spend a lifetime trying to erase that image from our heart and our mind. We don’t believe we are worthy to be made in God’s image…….That is why we need a Savior……..to save us from ourselves and put us back together.

Giving Thanks

In a book I am reading, the central thought is about giving thanks. One of the themes she carries throughout the book is that giving thanks always precedes the miracle. This seems to be true for things like turning the water into wine and especially feeding the many with a few loaves of bread and some fish. What strikes me most are the not so obvious miracles that take place after giving thanks. One such miracle is the opening of the eyes of the men who walked unknowingly with the resurrected Christ.

When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from [j]their sight.

When Jesus gave thanks then the miracle happened. They saw who he really was. When we give thanks for those around us we begin to see them differently. Our perspective is different when the framework is one of thankfulness rather than our usual perspective of viewing the world as if we stand in the center of it. It is hard to be thankful for something which we don’t value. The boy with the small amount of food on the hillside valued what he had enough to think that it would make a difference somehow. Jesus received what the boy valued and gave thanks and somehow it was enough. If we are thankful then it is most always enough. If we are not thankful then most often it is not enough.

Filling Emptiness

We live looking searching
To fill the emptiness of birth
Finally grasping something of substance
Pouring in to fill us
As it seeps thru our hearts
Leaving as it came
The holes of emptiness are bigger still

Tithing..........Really?

We have been reading a book called "Liberating Hope!" Daring to renew the Mainline Church by Michael S. Piazza and Cameron B. Trimble in our weekly Bible study at church. The chapter we just finished was on Stewardship. I had some enlightening moments while thinking about this chapter. I grew up with that whole idea of giving God our tithe faithfully would result in God blessing us tenfold. I don't know that it has ever really happened in my life, well at least not in a monetary way.

It seems to me that it was easier to write a check and pay tithes when I was more conservative/charismatic in belief. The more progressive I become in my theology and thinking, the less likely I am to pay tithes and write checks. I think the problem becomes one of belief…..the more liberal often means we apply more intellect than emotion to scripture. I think we also tend not to interpret the scripture quite as literal as those who are more fundamental in their theology. So for me I end up in a spot that doubts whether or not God really cares about money and how much I give. Does God really bless our giving? I would say we feel good about giving especially in things like food drives and such because we lean towards a more social gospel. But where does this leave the idea of tithing because God said so? Are we really going to give over 10% of our paycheck because there is a scripture that says God said to do it.

Finding What Was Lost

As I sat in church yesterday listening to our Pastor speak I began to realize that my spiritual life had taken another one of those turns in life. One of those turns that become a defining moment in your life. It seems God has led me back to a place spiritually that I have not been in the last 20 years of my life. Over the last several years I have mostly been at a place where I felt responsible for others spiritually. Going to church had become a chore in some ways for me and in other ways it had become a place of failure. Not just a place of failure that I felt personally but a place that I failed others and a place where often entire groups of people were failing in living out God's call on our lives. Not all of the past several years have been full of just failure. There have been great times of spiritual growth in my life personally and those around me. Times of true actual growth in the body I was a part of that could have led to a better place where people could flourish in their relationship with God and with others. These times of growth would always end up short lived. A lack of leadership often was a factor in watching the growth slowly die back to the place where it was before the growth began. Often I have felt responsible to at least a small group of those people for letting that death come and steal our growth. Leadership is not only a function of the highest seats of authority in our churches but leadership belongs to those of us sitting in regular pews as well. We all can be responsible at times for assisting the growth of a church just as we can be responsible for assisting the death of that growth.

So I sat in my pew and I thought something is different here, something is not as it has been in my life lately. The person in the pulpit was actually speaking a blessing over the congregation. He was telling the church that they "were doing it right". I hadn't heard that in a long time. I was used to being told how "wrong we were doing it." I realized his positive words that he was speaking over the congregation were not just the something different that I was trying to identify but rather it was just a small part of that difference. The biggest difference was leadership. When we begin to build something we start with the foundation and often the state of the foundation will also be the state of the rest of the building. Leadership and foundation are very similar for me. If the leadership is strong and balanced then the other layers will follow. I read a quote the other day about leadership that said
"Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen."
Something extraordinary is happening in our church. Leadership is making a way for others to give and use their gifts and people flourish when they are living out who God made them to be. We are at our best when we begin to realize that God gave us a purpose and gifts to pursue that purpose. We are at our best when leadership can affirm those gifts and can affirm who we are in God and then make a way and a place for the people to live that out. Leadership is making the way for this congregation to not only contribute to making something extraordinary happen but to live extraordinary lives in God.

So I had found what I lost…………someone to follow. Someone to say "you're doing it right". I can live out the calling on my life because others are living out the calling in theirs.

Communion

I have been working on a new song about communion. While I've been working on this song I have also been watching some "church" events unfold in the area. For me life is about a journey. It's not about where we are going so much as the going. Some of the churches I have been hearing about in the last few weeks were a part of my journey that has led me to where I am. I am thankful for those parts of my journey that allowed me to walk with some of those people. A depth was added to my life that could have only come from walking that path at that time. Sometimes we come to an end of a part of our journey but something happens that causes us to stop forward movement. I think for me it is often a fear of not knowing what is around that corner. We learn how to control a familiar path so it becomes predictable and we no longer fear turning a corner because we've been there before, we know what is coming. I would like to say that I willingly moved forward on my journey and embraced that new corner but I can't say that. In fact when I found myself on a different path than what I had traveled for the last 10 years or so I came to a stand still. I refused to move and I just knew that I would never turn a new corner. God has a way of giving us a push towards that corner. I'm sure God uses all sorts of things to nudge us but I think my nudge came in the form of desperation. A desperation for communion. Communion is just what I found around that corner in the form of a church that places value on the journey over the destination. Communion with others who share common things and yet bring such diversity to those who walk this common path. The one thing I didn't expect to find around that corner was the lighter side of faith. The last 10+ years church has more often than not been a battlefield of sorts. Every time I thought I had reached a place of peace and a place where growth was happening something ugly would appear and rob all of us of the beauty of where God had brought us too. All of those years I had thought we had to be serious about our faith and have a little fun but not too much. It was always about "where" we needed to get to. I came to a place where I judged my faith and my value on whether or not I could lead a group of people into a serious encounter with God and where often the heavier side of emotions would emerge as proof that we had delivered what we thought God had called us to. Communion and worship were suppose to lead us to repentance so that God could better use us. I know those things have a place and they certainly have been a part of my journey but maybe there is a different side to faith and God that I have missed. What I have seen around my new corner is healing that comes from joyful praise of a God who gives laughter instead of tears. Where worship flows from genuine relationships with God and one another. So when I stood a few weeks ago and asked this congregation to sing along with a few songs of worship and praise, I truly knew it was not about "getting somewhere" or evoking some emotion. It's about the steps we take and the paths we clear for those who may walk with us. It's about celebrating who God is and what God is doing right now right here in our lives that we share. It's about a 100+ people singing "love came down and rescued me" not because some movement of God suddenly evoked some deep emotional response but rather because it's how we live. We don't have to wait for prayers to break through to God or for some great and mighty wind to come along and blow us to a place closer to God. What we need is to love our neighbor and to love God. We need to walk with each other and share what God has done in our lives. We need to laugh and to pray and to sing joyful praises because God has filled our hearts and they are overflowing. We need to live as Jesus did, open and honest and available to those who walk close to us. We need to live in a way that our whole life, our whole selves become our reasonable act of worship. We need communion with each other and with God.




Communion

Here lies the bread
Here lies the wine
Pieces of a life we share
Come walk this path
Our common ground
Joining hope to lift the weak

Come and see the works of God
Taste the goodness of this love
Hear the Savior whispering
Remember Me
Remember Me

God of glory God of light
Come walk inside our brokenness
Raising us to life and love
Healing wounds with joyful praise

Worthy is the lamb of God
Who takes away our sin
Worthy is the lamb of God
Who takes away our sin

Come and see the works of God
Taste the goodness of this love
Hear the Savior whispering
Remember Me
Remember Me