Mennonite Weekly Review

The Apostle Paul’s love for the church at Corinth — “I always thank God for you” (1 Cor. 1:4) — models an affection that’s hard to match. At times the fellowship of the saints stirs up more frustration than joy.

For some, the pain extends far beyond frustration. Hurt and angry, they’ve given up on the church, which they feel has abandoned or wronged them.

Whether disillusioned from within or alienated from without, many yearn to taste the sacred yet shun the church as an institution.

After all, one can know God just as well, or better, without boring sermons, plodding hymns, irksome pewmates and pleas for cash. Who needs organized religion anyway?

Freelance faith has grown more popular. Trend watchers see private religious practices rising while church attendance slips. A University of Chicago study reports weekly attendance at religious services declined from 32 percent to 26 percent of the population between 1983 and 2006. At the same time, people who pray daily rose from 54 percent to 59 percent.

The spiritual-but-not-religious path looks attractive to those fed up with the church, but it’s ultimately a mirage, says Canadian Mennonite columnist Will Braun. “I believe that spirituality is, by nature, a collective endeavor,” Braun writes. A spiritual quest “must lead us not away from others but toward them.” In fact, he suggests, “the act of going to church … is the most important spiritual discipline… . In the intersection of our lives I believe I can find something that I cannot find alone.”

That something might be growing in tolerance and patience by talking with people of different views. It might be drawing inspiration from another’s gift of music, or gaining insight from a comment on Scripture. It might be serving others and, in turn, accepting their help in a time of need.

Depending on whether it is functioning at its best or worst, the church can be spiritually liberating or imprisoning. During a symposium last year at Conservative Mennonite Conference’s Rosedale Bible College in Ohio, academic dean Phil Weber warned against allowing the church to fall into “a paralyzing atmosphere of criticism, judgment and coldness… . Let’s be sure to cultivate that warm piety that nurtures the soul and revels in God’s grace.”

One way to experience grace is to share it. If we go to church to minister rather than be ministered to, we will find ourselves blessed. If we seek God rather than just a good sermon, we might experience a sacred moment and get more out of the pastor’s words too.

“The church is weak and imperfect. But the Holy Spirit is strong,” observe the writers of Knowing and Living Your Faith, a study of the Mennonite Brethren Confession of Faith. In this contrast of frailty and power, the church glorifies God, who turns our weakness into strength.