Why go to church?

I often hear people making a separation between being spiritual and being religious, as in: "I'm spiritual, but not religious." This brings up some interesting questions:

1. How are religion and spirituality different?

2. What value is there in going to church?

So, something simple and straightforward.

A stab at the first question: The word religion carries a lot of meanings today, and the negative pieces that get stuck to it include the public scandals--greasy televangelists and abusive priests--and the more private scandals--bitter infighting inside a church, unimaginative teaching, childish theology, or general rigidity. But I think the broader objection is that "religion" connotes something that is repetitive, empty, and boring--a set of rituals left over from the past.

I've sat through enough droning organ solos and vapid sermons to know that there is some truth to this assessment. And on another level it is rare to experience a sense of excitement--God is here, change is afoot, what we are doing has a transcendent meaning.

But I think spirituality is missing something without its cousin religion. In defense of rituals, their emptiness or their purpose depends on a person's state of mind as much as it does on the particular ritual.

Well, that's not entirely true. Let me try again.

The purpose of religion is to facilitate spiritual growth. The rituals are not a guarantee of growth. X number of hours does not equal X amount of spiritual growth. But repetition is one way to put ourselves in the position for growth. The movements of the body prepare the mind. Walking into a church, or breathing deeply in silence--each can be a signal that helps us turn toward deeper things. And, really, it's not just our minds that are spiritual--the body can learn to worship in its own way, too. The rituals of religion are the metaphysical equivalent of putting a plant in sunlight, or watering it on a regular basis. The growth comes from God, but it helps to water the plant.

Spirituality, as I understand it, is this quest for spiritual growth. And I think people do grow, developing their own rituals, independent of other people. So why go to church and deal with all the crap?

Here's where I'm at with this: going to church and bumping up against other people is an important way to water the plant, so to speak. Other people can help us reflect on our own lives, can tell us their stories, can encourage us and pray for us, and can challenge us to do the same for them. They can also help us practice virtues like patience and love, which are hard to do (or easy, depending how you look at it) without a person to be patient with, or a person to love. To quote a New Testament passage, "How can you love God, whom you haven't seen, without loving your neighbor, whom you have seen?"

But I don't think that church (or other gatherings of spiritually-minded people) is just about helping individuals help each other. Church is also about changing the world. There is a corporate dimension to our lives that is greater than the sum of individual lives. I need to think about this more, but it seems to me that as a body, churches have a particular calling that is larger, even, than its service to individuals or communities.

Will have to reflect on that one later.