{"id":290,"date":"2015-03-09T10:52:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T14:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/todojustice\/?p=290"},"modified":"2015-08-22T15:16:49","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T19:16:49","slug":"do-i-have-to-go-to-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/todojustice\/2015\/03\/09\/do-i-have-to-go-to-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I Have To Go to Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"stockvault-church-benches\"<\/a>With a teenage daughter in the house, I seem to get this question much more frequently on Sunday mornings than I used to. Especially since the nine-year old, who follows her sister\u2019s lead in everything, has began to sing this refrain as well.<\/p>\n

I grew up as a \u201cPK\u201d or a \u201cpreacher\u2019s kid.\u201d This was not a question that got asked in our house. Unless you had a fever of a 104 or couldn\u2019t keep down your breakfast, you were going to church! And it wasn\u2019t just worship on Sunday morning, it was Sunday school, worship, youth group, Wednesday night suppers, and any other \u201cprogramming\u201d that happened to be offered. As the preacher\u2019s family, the Church was the center of our social world. This made sense for our family but there were many other families in our church who this was true for as well. The church family was a community, people knew each other and supported one another through life\u2019s ups and downs.<\/p>\n

Quite frankly, the church isn\u2019t the center of very many people\u2019s social world any more. In our over-programmed world, from our work lives crammed full of meetings, deadlines, and obligations to our home lives where we struggle to get kids to activities on time and still find time for family dinners a couple of times a week \u2013 many people (with or without kids) are living lives that seem non-stop.<\/p>\n

The 21st<\/sup> century world is running at a different pace than previous generations. These days, soccer games, swim meets, and various other kid\u2019s activities are scheduled for Sunday morning and Wednesday evenings. Even among families who make it church, many more attend sporadically than regularly.<\/p>\n

I was talking with a minister friend recently and he described his congregation as a mix of the \u201cregulars\u201d and the \u201crest.\u201d While the \u201cregulars\u201d are there every Sunday, tithe regularly, and put in the service to keep the lights on and the doors open, the \u201crest\u201d drop in and out of worship, give money for designated projects, and show up occasionally for various activities throughout the year. Yet all of these folks consider themselves part of this congregation, whether or not they have officially \u201cjoined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, many strong churches are still able to embody a deep sense of community and still function as the center of people\u2019s social world. I have belonged to churches like this as an adult, but I also find them harder and harder to find.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, I find that I don\u2019t want to get up on Sunday mornings and go to church either! As a cradle Presbyterian, PK, ordained minister and a professor of Christian ethics \u2013 if I don\u2019t want to go to church on Sunday mornings, how can I be surprised when so many of us from Gen X on down aren\u2019t showing up in church?<\/p>\n

As the \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d movement shows \u2013 people are still spiritual. Polls show that 92% people<\/a> in the US still believe in God. We also still need and desire relationship and community, although it is harder and harder to find in the midst of our sprawling and urbanized lifestyles. Community (like church) requires time and commitment.<\/p>\n

And so, I respond to my kids \u2013 \u201cOf course we are going to church!\u201d and I drag myself out of bed and scurry around to get us out the door and to the church \u2013 seeking community, relationship, some quiet time for reflection, and hopefully some challenging thoughts from the pulpit.<\/p>\n

Worship offers some time together with my family where we all acknowledge that life is about more than us and our needs, worries, and challenges \u2013 we are part of something bigger and grander than we can ever know. Sitting together and worshiping with our neighbors in the midst of our community \u2013 we sometimes encounter the ineffable, if only for a heartbeat.<\/p>\n

While, of course, like those who are \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d I also find God in nature, in my home, and often in the relationships and people that I encounter in my everyday life \u2013 attending church is a spiritual discipline in a world increasingly bereft of spiritual disciplines.<\/p>\n

This is why I (and my family) \u201chave\u201d to go to church \u2013 because we seek communion with God and with community.<\/p>\n

Do you go to worship? Why or why not?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a teenage daughter in the house, I seem to get this question much more frequently on Sunday mornings than I used to. Especially since the nine-year old, who follows her sister\u2019s lead in everything, has began to sing this refrain as well. I grew up as a \u201cPK\u201d or a \u201cpreacher\u2019s kid.\u201d This was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2392,"featured_media":659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[158,52,170],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity","tag-church","tag-community","tag-parenting"],"yoast_head":"\nDo I Have To Go to Church?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With a teenage daughter in the house, I seem to get this question much more frequently on Sunday mornings than I used to. 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