Why do we.....

Have you ever, like me, sat in church wondering "why do we do this?" Have you ever had a decent answer? the truth is we do most of the normal "church service" pieces because that is what you do in church. Why do we pray, sing, preach, take communion? In fact, if you actually try to justify them biblically speaking, it becomes tricky.

The reality is we do these things because that is what "being church" or "being spiritual" means. But is it? The church in Acts were good at meeting together and teaching and stuff. But the core thing was that they met together. So often today we feel that we have to meet to do something, but really, the core thing they did was meet and share. Relationship was at the core of the church, because relationship is at the core of "being spiritual". We are made for relationship, and we are at our most spiritual - our most like ourselves as we should be - when we are engaged in relationship with others.

Of course, relationships are dangerous. We can also be at our most vulnerable, and "spiritual" does not necessarily mean "nice" - it means being like ourselves, and sometimes ourselves are not nice. So it is much easier to "do" things, to engage in strange rituals that help us avoid actually being in proper relationships. Much easier. But what are we missing?