WHY DO WE "DO" CHURCH

Over at Jan Edmiston's A Church for Starving Artists, Jan is challenging our ways of promoting church. She continually throws out ideas that are relevant for all denominations as we struggle with the church of today. Maybe a better question is: For WHOM do we do church? And that piggy back's onto the "why." The one follows and precedes the other. These are questions that I struggle with constantly.

Sadly, the answers that I perceive, are that we are doing church for "ourselves." Scary. So we are self perpetuating our stagnation, our segregation, our worship of the worship as we want it to be. We have lost sight of our purpose. In The Episcopal Church we are taught that our purpose is to spread the Good News, The Good News of Christ. Can't do that if we are preaching to ourselves; devoting our energies upon ourselves, worshiping for ourselves. Catch the SELF thing here? OUCH!!

If we would just look at how we learn, how we learn to be in this world. We learn by association, we learn by example. We learn from role models that we respect and admire. How, then, can we best promote the Good News? By example, by association, by modeling. And how do we that? Can't do it in a vacuum. People meeting people. That is the only way. Bring people together to share a meal, laugh, play, talk, cry, share stories. It ISN'T about church. It is about people. It is about relationships. It is about sharing our story with one another. It is about supporting one another. It is about celebrating one another. This is God at work through us.

SO! Let us not "do" church. Let us BE church.