The Dreaded Question.

"What Church do you go to?"

"Oh, I haven't been going anywhere"

"Have you tried ______? I think it would be really good for you" (This is usually coupled with a concerned look and condescending tone)

I have had this exact same conversation way too many times. I get so frustrated that my salvation seems to be tied up with my church attendance for so many people. While I know this isn't true, and I try to not let it affect me too much, I just wish it was different. These posts by Rachel Held Evans have really helped me process through this.

On leaving the church
On returning to the church
On the slippery slope

For me I experience church when I sit and have discussions with my closest friends about our thoughts on faith and experiences with God around my dinner table. I see it as church when my husband and I listen to podcasts in the car and discuss them together when they are finished. To me a church isn't a building, it is the people I surround myself with on a daily basis that I hope to serve and love as much as possible. It is learning and living with them. At this point I don't feel called to enter another building that is labeled as a Church. My faith has grown far more outside of such buildings.

It may not always be this way. I don't want to convert anyone to my way of thinking, or prove how I am right and everyone else in church is wrong. My only hope is that everyone would be more accepting of how everyone will have a different personal journey with faith. I include myself in this statement, I hope to be just as accepting of those who subscribe to the typical church model as I am to the rag-tag bunch of people I choose to be with.

I am very curious about different opinions on this subject. Why do or why don't you believe in being part of a large church body? What have been your experiences inside and outside of churches, and how have they led you to the beliefs you have now about church?