Wilderness and the Church Experience

Belonging to a Christian community is not about just stamping your time card each week and relieving your Christian guilt. In fact, the obligation of attending church is an empty mirage of Christianity. Attending church weekly is not a way of avoiding sin in and of itself.

This caught my attention in a very helpful and readable reflection on being in and out of church.  The post is far from negative, just in case that was what you were reading into the quote.

I know that Anne and I are about to wander into the wilderness. Some might say deeper into the wilderness. With the busyness of my training and to be honest a lack of desire to be in church anyway, I've found myself outside the typical Christian community. Maintaining a faithful walk with God in such a situation is not easy. And yet sometimes church is the very thing that gets in the way of it too! The wilderness can be a great place to learn new things and remember old truths.

Perhaps we won't be in the wilderness long, or even at all. Being prepared for it, and at the same remembering what is at stake and why the church matters and what community could be will be important factors in sustaining ourselves.