Our Stories
"So this is what everyone else does on Sunday mornings."
By Aaron Soderlund | posted 09/03/2009
"For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them." Matthew 18:20
We didn't go to church on Sunday. Hard to believe, I know. We felt the same way. It was a very weird feeling to not be at Creekside, or any church, on a Sunday morning. We were in the car and said, "So this is what everyone else does on Sunday Mornings." It was an interesting thought that we don't often pay much attention to.
Beth and I both grew up in homes where we went to church every Sunday. In fact, it was even the same church - though we didn't know each other. But just as 6 o'clock means dinner, Sunday morning means church. It has never been a second thought in our adult lives because we've never lived the life of not going to church.
I can't lie to you, having a free Sunday morning was kind of nice. Having two weekend mornings where we could do things as a family was pretty cool. And we enjoyed the time together as the four of us.
But it sparked quite a conversation as were driving to Seattle at 10:00 AM. Part of us felt guilty. Because no matter how hard we try there is still this 'rule' buried deep inside of us that says "Christians must go to church on Sundays." Part of us felt weird because it was this stolen time that we're not used having and felt a little guilty about having. And a big piece of us just realized that we missed our friends and worshipping together with our friends. We missed our community.
In today's iTunes world, you can hear a sermon about anything you want whenever you want to listen to it. But you don't get to have a relationship with that pastor over iTunes. We can send our boys off to Sunday School at any church, but we don't know the people that are taking care of them and influencing them each Sunday. We can listen to worship music, and even sing along, any time we so desire, but we can't do it together with our friends and fellow followers of Jesus just anywhere.
What this leads me to believe is that you can have all the components of 'church' individually, especially in our tech-savvy world. And they can even impact your lives in many ways on their own. But 'church' isn't about a sermon. It isn't about the music. It isn't even about dropping your kids off with somebody else for an hour so you can actually listen (though that is a nice perk). Church is about community. A community of people that follow Christ, that exists to support and build up each other (internally) and their community (externally) so that Jesus will be seen by everyone that community touches.
The word "church" often has a connotation that I wish it didn't. To many it means: rules, guilt, pain, cheesy, fake, etc. And I truly believe that Jesus did not mean for it to become that way. But he did mean for us to be in community with each other and the people around us. Everyone needs community.
While we very much enjoyed our Sunday morning, we felt a sense of loss by not being together with our Creekside Covenant Community.
Aaron can be reached via email here.
