I know that when you ask about attending church, you mean to hear a sermon or a service. I found something peaceful in the large Cathedrals I visited in the UK and Europe. The pipe organ and choir was why I was there. The music was inspiring. Sermons were sometimes in a language I didn't understand, but it seem to comfort those in attendance. That was the important thing.
I was raised in the church by religious but not fanatical parents. We basically spent most of Sundays involved in church activities. Wednesday night was prayer service, Thursday night was choir practice, there was always some youth activity going on. My dad was an Elder, my mom was the children's choir director. Going to church wasn't optional when I was growing up. If you weren't deathly sick, you got up on Sunday morning and went to Sunday School and church service. "Tired" because you were out late Saturday night wasn't an acceptable excuse. I don't remember having any feelings that my parents were unreasonable. Then I married a man who was a "lapsed Catholic". He had spent eight years with the Benedictines, studying for the priesthood, and now wanted nothing to do with organized religion. ANY organized religion. That was pretty much the end of going to church, except for Christmas and Easter. I go to church with my mama when I visit her, because I love my mama and it makes her happy. She goes to a lovely small non-denominational church and I'll admit that I like the sermons and the music and the fellowship. I consider myself a "Christian-At-Large". I think I would have made a good Cathar, except that I have a "thing" about being persecuted and exterminated.
Never been a real church goer just was not for me UNTIL I found a church out of state that did things I like so radically different from the rest, They shot pistol matches had rifle, shotgun and pistol ranges with an indoor range with weekly all year long matches, hooked was an understatement, shooting groups, fishing groups, predator hunting, horse activities all what I do, their motto we want those others do not, we listen! Sadly I do not get to go there anymore due to travel and life changes. I know of one other close similar but not in their class at all. I went 3 yrs every chance I could the involvement made me a better person I admit. I accepted their style well, the most involved I ever attended for the religious and personal aspects both.
Growing up, the church was at the top of the hill, and our house was about halfway down the hill, so it was quite close. It was expected that we would be in church for Sunday School and worship services each Sunday morning, again on Sunday night, and for Bible studies on Wednesday evenings. I don't remember my parents ever telling me that I had to attend, but not going just didn't seem to be an option. My father only attended on Christmas and Easter, however. For a few years, beginning at about age twelve, I think, I was responsible for running off the church bulletin. Being a lifelong procrastinator, I usually did that late on Saturday night, and sometimes after midnight. It was spooky in the church basement, where the mimeograph machine was. When no one else was in the church, I would sometimes hear someone walking upstairs. In those days, church doors were never locked. Wallace was too small of a town to have a library, but the church had a fairly large library and one that wasn't restricted to Christian books, although there wasn't anything there that Christians would object to. Anyone who wanted to borrow a book from the church library could check it out themselves, simply by writing their name on the bottom of the card that was inside the front cover and leaving it in a box on the desk. Since I lived so close, I would often sit in the church library and read late into the night. Once in a while the pastor, who lived in the parsonage next door, would notice that the light was in and check on me, but the pastor we had most of the time that I was there was easy enough to get along with, so that wasn't uncomfortable. After my mother died, when I was thirteen, I drifted away for a while. I used the excuse that I was angry with God, but I think it had more to do with starting high school and having a lot of other options opening up for me. Oh, I still went to church pretty much every Sunday but I didn't always do the evening services. After high school, I hitchhiked around the country for a year and a half, attended college, then moved to California. I didn't think about attending church until I adopted a son who had been pretty much unchurched. Living in a place where there were more than three flavors of churches, I spent some time figuring out what I believed and ended up in an Anabaptist church. Since then, I was pretty regular in my church attendance, serving at various times as a deacon, church secretary, treasurer, and interim minister. When I moved to Maine, there were no Anabaptist churches, so I joined an American Baptist Church here in Millinocket, becoming a deacon a few years later. However, while we were involved in a local political struggle, the pastor of that church sided with the other side, so I left and haven't been back. When we are up north near our camp, I attend a small church in the St. John Valley, near Canada, and we sometimes travel up there on a Saturday for church services, since they meet on Saturdays, but we don't go every week. I don't miss getting dressed up on Sundays, but I do miss the fellowship, hypocrites and all. Mostly, I think people use hypocrites as an excuse for something they don't want to do anyhow, and hypocrites tend to simply be imperfect people.
Raised as a Southern Baptist,even as at teen never agreed with their religion,and verbally . I converted to Episcopalian for many years, and my parents finally accepted that. Then I really began yo pay attention to religions and find that also, not for me anymore. I visited and became several different domination,none that satisfied my inner soul. It has been over 25 years since I went to church of any kind. I consider myself a self religionist and spiritualist. I do respect any and all God based religions. My lack of love for labeling keeps me from ever wanting to be classified a particular religion. Yes, church are filled with hypocrisy- as once stated - churches are a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Either way,I just do not feel the need to "belong" to a particular religion. My brother is agnostic...and has a habit of using the Lords name in vain a lot- this absolutely unnerves me and always has- why I do not know. But of all the dirty words that have ever come from my mouth that is the One word I just can not bear to hear or say. I have said it myself 2-3 times tops in 30 -40 - I broke down and cried - sobbed afterward. So go figure that one out Peace to you all...
Hmmm. After giving this some thought, I'll just say that for the most part, people ARE religions. The fiasco playing out in the Catholic Church right now is a prime example of people behaving badly and other people sweeping it under the rug... all in the name of the Church. The hypocrisy is without bounds. Furthermore, each denomination has its own rule book, and of course, each is "the ONLY true religion."
Although I never went to a service there, I used to attend the choir practice at Riverside Church in New York. I don't know if it is still true, but they had a professional paid choir, and it was absolutely wonderful. When I spent time in New York City, I was quite poor, so I was always looking for free things to do. I had a friend (old girlfriend) who was attending Union Seminary at the time, and we would spend Thursday (I think) evenings at the church listening to the choir. It was totally free and very enjoyable. @Lulu Moppet do you know if this still happens? It was almost 50 years ago, so I am sure things have changed, but there were free concerts then, too, somewhere downtown...perhaps the Cooper Union?
Religion is a little bit like politics, really I think. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the whole concept of God and Jesus and the whole ball of religious wax was a made up concept by some early men and like a snowball rolling down a mild slope, the further it rolled the bigger it got and the more it was accepted by the humanity at large until it has reached what we have today, the politics of religion, a branch for everybody. Religion has been accepted the world over mostly and it has been devided so most everyone can feel at home or comfortable in his or her particular church or niche. People who attend this philosophy have not fared well in America, however. Just a continuing thought.
I haven't seen the inside of a Church since I was baptized in 1948. My wife is Catholic and I'm a Lutheran so we conveniently cancel each other out! Hal
To me, religion is what people believe in. The church is the body of people who believe in a particular religion. The fact that these people possess human frailties says nothing about the truth or falseness of the religion. I understand that to people outside of the church, religion is the organization that has been built up around a particular belief but, since people are doing the organizing, that is susceptible to the same weaknesses.