Why Church?

The following quote answers for me "Why do you go to church?" "We need places to pray as if someone were listening, to study as if we might learn something worth writing on our hearts, to join with others in service as if the world might be transformed. Churches are places to learn to practice, with other, a continual conversion of life, a permanent openness to change." Stephanie Paulsell, from "Soul experiments," Faith Matters in the Christian Century. The message begins with a "We." Why church for me is always about a We - there is just not enough of my own spirituality that can fill all the world with God. I need the We to embrace all of God. And the "We" is gathered in shared prayer that has movement, structure, music, silence, emotion and thought. I need the dynamics of worship to open for me the tiny facets of God. And the the "We" is about listening. If God is listening to all of us, then what "We" share with God is a mere speck of sand in the vast beauty of God's restful short. I need the "We" to feel part of the ecology of God's creation. Tomorrow...something worth writing on our hearts.