Reply to If you were a regular church-goer before the pandemic, how do you feel about returning to church?

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Reply to "If you were a regular church-goer before the pandemic, how do you feel about returning to church?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here --

Just for the record, I'm not any of the PPs saying that you need community for spirituality or worship.

But, riffing on that for a bit -- what do we mean when we talk about community in the context of religion or spirituality?  Our church is a large one with a sense of bustle and activity and perhaps even "eliteness" in some sense.  That part has always left me cold.  I do think, however, that the church community can be a force for good and can be caring when members find themselves in need of aid.  But I also know those things can be found elsewhere.  What do you value in your faith community?  What are you looking for that you might not find there?  What are other communities where you've found those things?    [/quote]

OP I really relate to your post. Lifelong church-goer (father was a minister, no choice growing up) but in adulthood found my way back when I was able to make that choice. Have kids that loved church, it's seeing friends and activities and youth group. Of course all that went away. To your original questino, yes, I'm having trouble getting back to getting up on Sunday mornings and going, bc it's just the service and not stuff before (we have Sunday School, but it was really just a group that liked to sit around and catch up with each other!). They became my 3am friends: you can call any of these people at any time and ask any favor and we have done that for each other (3am, husband rushing to ER, can you take my kid? Yep). I think by seeing these people 1/2 times per week for 2 decades built up that community like no other. Jobs, people in/out. Happens in church too, but not as much for me as my co-workers.

I have a group of 4/5 friends who are this community for me. And a larger group of people, younger and older, that care about me, my kids as if we were family (none of our family lives in the area). I have people that are my emergency contact for school etc. I'm not sure I would have this without finding it in an organized religious community.

Now to get back to organized church services is another thing. It's gotten too easy to stay in pj's and not go![/quote]

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