Pastor's Corner: Love or Fear

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This Thursday was my opportunity to write the Pastor's Corner for our local paper.  For all of you non-subscribers, here is the copy of my reflections.

Pastor's Corner: Why Attend Church?

Last week a fellow parishioner and I attended a district meeting of three Episcopal churches in our area, St. Andrew's being one of the three. During the meeting there was discussion on low church attendance at Sunday Services. One of the people attending made the comment, “If more of our members would just make the effort to drag themselves out of bed on a Sunday morning we would have much better attendance.” I have thought a lot about her statement and have found some real wisdom in what she said but probably not in the way she meant it.

When I was a child I was made to go to church because it was expected of me. In our particular denomination Sunday was considered a holy day of obligation and if you did not go to the service, it was a black mark on your soul. It wasn't until I was much older that I realized I had been going to church for the wrong reasons. I was going to church out of fear and guilt and not out of a love of God and the desire for spiritual growth.

A lot has changed since I was a child. Churches cannot rely on fear and guilt as a way to inspire people to attend services. Our places of worship need to be places where people want to feel a sense of spiritual enrichment, places where we make a joyful noise, places where we share our faith with our church family.

When I look out at our congregation on a Sunday morning, I see people who want to be there. They enjoy each others company and they discuss with me and others the good news of scripture. They share in Holy Communion and it is meaningful to them. There is laughter. There is also reverence.

We all have holes in our lives that we try to fill. Sometimes we try to fill that emptiness with things like a new and bigger television, or money, or alcohol. What so many do not realize is that this hole is a spiritual emptiness that will only be filled with spiritual things.

I encourage you to attend the service of your choice this week and may you grow spiritually.

Fr. Fred Steinbach
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

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