Shop 'Til You Drop

There’s a lot to be said for finding the right church. God’s many blessings are felt more abundantly when worshiping as part of Christ’s body. We are called to corporate prayer and the necessity of being part of a Christian community has been delineated by many eloquent voices. You can't be Christian all by yourself.

But it’s not always easy. In some locations, one’s particular denomination might be very much in the minority – or even missing entirely. And there is the matter of churchmanship. I know two faithful, life-long Episcopalians who walked out of a church service and never returned to that place of worship. One could not abide the new version of the Lord’s Prayer and the other took exception to the Eucharistic Prayer in Rite One. Perhaps they should simply have switched places.

Certainly, we all have our deal breakers when it comes to church. It is just possible that a particular form of worship or interior space or music or preaching will make it impossible for a person to be at all comfortable in that church.

When my family moved from the very Episcopalian east coast to the mostly Lutheran mid-west, I was hard pressed to find an Episcopal church within a reasonable distance. There were two. The first (and closest) was such a far cry from my “home ”parish in Pennsylvania that I wept throughout the entire service and left when it ended without saying a word to anyone. Homesickness, for sure. The second try was much closer to the kind of church I was used to, both in appearance and liturgy and I worshiped there for many years. It was not perfect. It was not like my home church. It never could be. But I stayed.

I know what it’s like to feel misplaced in a church. We are physical creatures with eyes, ears, histories and preferences. The look of a worship space, the hymns sung, the prayers chosen, the homilies preached matter a great deal to us. Certain of these resonate. Hearing and singing “Saint Patrick’s Breastplate” for example, would cover a multitude of deficiencies, like the lack of stained glass windows. Praying “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee” at the Offertory makes up for the lack of incense. It’s a trade off. If I am looking for an exact replica of the church I left behind, I will never find it, even if I search the world over. 

As I had to move on, so I moved on.

In my human imperfection, however, I see my simple needs as much bigger than they really are. Do these things matter? Isn't it God I’m worshiping on Sunday morning and not my own refined tastes? If I am so sophisticated that I can’t find God in Rite II, or in a plain sanctuary, or in a raggedy old organ, should I expect God to find a worthy soul in me? 

It is God’s word that we seek, God’s work that we do and God’s people that we are. At some point, my search for a church that exactly fits me, becomes a little too much about me. At some point I need to set aside this quest for churchly perfection and worship the Lord in the beauty of HIS holiness. Otherwise I’m just Carrie Bradshaw looking for the right pair of shoes.

If I find myself uprooted once again, and I hope I don’t, I’ll certainly “shop” for a church. I’ll visit one or two, but no more. I’ll accept that God’s word will be made known to me in the breaking of the bread. I won’t rate churches on assets that may appeal to my pride. I’ll let myself be guided to wherever God wants me and if it’s hard to adjust, if I feel diminished by a lack of beauty here or overwhelmed by too much of it there, I’ll be all the better for it.

In closing, I offer for your consideration this excerpt from C.S. Lewis’s little masterpiece The Screwtape Letters. Here we find the demon Screwtape advising his nephew demon, Wormwood, how to best keep his charge away from the “enemy” (God).

Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that “suits” him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches. ….the search for a suitable church makes the man a critic where the enemy wants him to be a pupil.