It seems to me that for most people, belonging to a community is more important to them than the beliefs of their religion. Relatively few people seem to be as enthusiastic about their religion's beliefs as they are about meeting up with their friends and acquaintances for services, etc.
Please note. I'm talking about most people here, and not specifically about members of RF. I think RFers are probably more interested in beliefs than most people because, basically, this forum is for discussing beliefs. But the average religious person seems more interested in community to me than to his or her religion's belief system.
What do you think?
I see this often in churches, where although I believe many or most people are there because they do have a genuine belief, it can sometimes become more of a social event over wanting to really learn, worship or be fed spiritually. This is not everyone of course. I tend to be a loner and at the same time desire social interactions. I get frustrated though when I see women judging others women's clothes, hair etc, to such a large degree . I like to look decent for church, but I hate it when women make it into a fashion show, or if people are ascessing people according to status, money, married or single, children no children. When I see these things being more important to people than someone's character, how they think, or what they might have to offer in terms of wisdom or life stories, I get pretty critical and find myself wanting to drop out of the church scene. Its easy when you're comfy in the social scene to lose sight of what's important and why God wants you there.
I was going to a Sunday school class for a while that ran a discussion group about what the sermon was about earlier. I really loved to delve into the discussion and liked the questions being asked, but unfortunately the man who ran it just let certain people chit chat too much and there was only 10 minutes or so to actually discuss the sermon. I remember a guy in the class who wore a patch over his eye and had been injured in the war. He had amazing spiritual insight, but in my opinion it seemed it wasn't appreciated very much in the class. I can only assume it was because he didn't fit in socially as much as the others. Its a huge shame because that is not what the body of Christ is supposed to be about. But this is not all churches.
I have conflicting natures . One, I would love to fit in a social scene, but two, I find myself guarding my individualism. I guess I do that because I don't want to lose sight of why I'm there and fall into the trap of getting clique ish..but then that makes me not fit in very well. Sigh.
I just have to approach going to church as being fed spiritually and somehow being used by God that day, even if it's a small way (or what seems like a small way to me, but maybe isn't small in God's eyes ). My other pet peeve is when I'm really getting into what the pastor is saying and how the Holy Spirit is reaching me at that moment, but then I get frustrated at people sitting around me who yawn, or cough, or start flipping the pages of their Bible out of boredom. Or because people are so social, they want to look at me, or expect me to look at them or acknowledge them constantly while Im trying to focus on the sermon. Drives me nuts lol. Maybe I just need to look harder for another church, because I do miss being socially involved.