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By MERLIN SHOKB
Rappahannock News
Guest Columnist
If somehow we can realize what is happening when Christians come together for worship, I feel we are more likely to be present at the designated time and place for worship. If we visualize only a social hour, or the hawking of belief^xwe already hold; if we sense an attempt to gain control over God or other people, then it’s no wonder many of us don’t see our need for church this week.
Some of what people find in church we feel we can get elsewhere. Some we feel we are better off without. So, why come to church? Besides, there are people there we’d rather not run into. But isn’t there something offered at church that we don’t find anywhere else?
It is tragic how some of us Christians see the church. . . even our own church. Is ehurch merely a rubber-stamping exercise with lots of uniformity and very little unity? Is church a mind set that views all others as second class churches for “unspiritual” Christians? If this is so, then how easy it is to lose interest in church.
Maybe coming to church is for the weak who need some sort of crutch. The “mature” who don’t attend have outgrown this dependence on such things as bread and wine. . . and people. The “mature” have learned all the hymns, study the Bible privately at home, and already know the sermon material.
Let’s remember that, when we were baptized, we
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