Why come to church at all? Your experiences with church from a young age might still linger in your mind. Maybe you didn’t connect with it, or have bad memories and so it’s something you avoid. But the spaces and the activities that take place there form us. No matter if it’s the mall, Heinz field, or our living room, we get oriented and shaped in the spaces we occupy. Even if in small ways, the routine-shaping leads us to be consumers, followers of sports heroes, or more centered in God. Church’s goal is to lead us to the latter. We are shaped as a follower of God, oriented towards His cross, and led to become more loving and forgiving.
Coming to church is how we live out the loving ways we’re called to in relationships with others. It’s easy to love someone from afar, but living out love and knowing if we’re improving happens in close and growing relationships with people who frankly frustrate us at times. If our lives are edited to include only those people like us, whom we enjoy, and give us something there’s no practical way to grow in the love Jesus had.