What's the big deal with church?

Donald Miller, best-selling evangelical author, created a firestorm recently when he wrote a blog post about why he doesn't go to church much anymore. He talked about how the didactic event on Sunday was not how he best learned.

It got me thinking. 

Learning about God or even connecting with Him aren't the reasons I go either.  It's odd perhaps, but that has always been true for me.  A book, a mountain trail, a quiet stream, a coffee shop, a late night talk at Bible school -- these are the places I have experienced God.

So what of the organized church?

I realize I am way out on the end of the church attendance bell curve. I've attended over 6,000 church services in my day -- easily averaging three a week for my entire life. So please don't immediately apply my thoughts to your life. I am odd and I know that.

But the question remains. Why church?  Is it the social connection? 

Judging from sites like Recovering Grace -- and actually the daily news -- the church hurts people.  How many people can I count who have been deeply wounded by the "chuch"?  Lots.

Whatever happened to the "Safest Place on Earth?" The safest place is right outside Timbuktu -- far from anyone!

Either I am hopelessly depressed or I am on to something. Relationships are not safe. Who ever heard of a safe marriage? To love is to be hurt.

Associations are safe. Do you know anyone hurt by the National Model Railroad Association? Who ever saw the Parks Dept on the nightly news?  Have you ever seen a support group for survivors of the local PTA?

So here is what I am thinkin'.   The church is a painful place because its suppose to break us.  Like marriage any relationship entered into deeply results in a desperate realization that I like my own way and I need grace. I am not the nice guy I thought I was. This is the existential crisis we must face if we are to truly love.  As Jesus said, "Except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it die, it brings much fruit."  I remember that I honestly don't like most people, much less love my neighbor as myself. In that stark realization, I sink down into the childlike place where tears come from and prayer is real.  In that place, the Comforter comes, and I inexplicably see others as I am, a kid, and His love starts flowing.

I think this is the fruit he is talking about -- love, gentleness that comes when I know I have been given grace, patience, peace, stuff like that. This is the sort of thing that then marks the true followers of Jesus. By your love for each other they will know you (to paraphrase another of Jesus'words).

This love is a rare thing, particularly when it lasts. It is mostly in the brokenness of painful relatipnships that God births this love in us.

That's worth getting up on Sunday morning for.

P.S. If you hearing me saying in this post that I always get hurt by people at my church, that's not the point. The point is that as an introvert, faith commumity is often annoying and most Sundays I would rather hit the bike trail, but I stay because God has something good for me that only comes in relationship and relationship only comes through pain.