Just got back from church...

[JustJack]

I Just got back from Church this morning, and boy am I well rested. I'm sorry...I just am not uplifted anymore. I go to church to sleep basically. It's just to boring for me to handle. Sometimes it's just like our evangelist just keeps telling the same thing over and over and over again. *sigh*....how sad.

[Calhoun07]

I don't have a church that I attend.

[batboy2001]

Originally posted by JustJack
I Just got back from Church this morning, and boy am I well rested. I'm sorry...I just am not uplifted anymore. I go to church to sleep basically. It's just to boring for me to handle. Sometimes it's just like our evangelist just keeps telling the same thing over and over and over again. *sigh*....how sad.

I (when I do go) just kinda tune out. At night I nap a little sometimes. I dunno, just hearing the pastor drone on and on, makes you wanna sleep.

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

Most of the sermons at our church are actually pretty good, but I was feelin under the weather today and couldn't keep my mind on what he was saying. Didn't help any that li'l Mia Range was feeling as bad as I was, poor kid. I let her use me for a pillow so she could sleep and her mom could follow the sermon.

[Web Head]

Hey, I know the feeling. That's why I just stopped going altogether. My opinion on the matter is that I believe in God and all, we just stay out of each other's ways.

To me, going to chruch/temple/whatever is a very profound spiritual experience. If you aren't getting this out of your time there, then why even bother going? Your only going through the motions at that point, and I think that most religions deserve bettter than that.

Just one man's opinion...

[wussiewussie]

i don't waste my time at church. organized religion just does not appeal to me, nor does sitting somewhere bored out of my mind for an hour so i can go to heaven. maybe when i'm an adult i'll go through some soul searching and become a religious person but for now it's just useless for me.

[James]

Don't go. I don't believe in organised religion, just getting by with just a little help from my friends (sorry listening to the Beatles). Church holds little interest to me. It teaches me no more than I know from scriptures I have little faith in regardless of what I believe. So I have no idea what this Church thing you talk about is. Isn't it a young singer? ;)

[Barb Gordon]

I like going to church from time to time. Sometimes I'm bored, sometimes I'm not. The times I would go to church was begin I was an alter server....and you have to pay attention there are risk getting embarassed in front of the entire congregation for getting to bring the book up or something. I've done that at least once or twice in the five years that I've served. Some of the sermons were very interesting to listen to, funny, moving, they made you think. Yet sometimes I would zone out without realizing it. I think I basically go to church to reconnect. I'm all right with organized religion, but not a big fan of it. I don't see why I can't just practice on my own and be just as spiritual. And at least for me, church is nothing but meeting up with friends. So yeah, if you're bored, just don't go, watch tv or something. I mean, I would rather not attend then insult the priest by almost falling asleep, reading a book, or showing that I'm not listening and am bored.

~Barb

[TimTwoFace]

Christmases aside, I haven't gone to church in YEARS. See, I was stuck in private Catholic schools from Kindergarten to Gr. 12, so I was a little overloaded with all Catholicism in that time. After I graduated from high school, though I still believed myself to be a Catholic, I just could NOT put up with the institution of the church any more. My particular parish is totally old-school, too - it gears towards the elders in the community, and has virtually no connection with the youth above the age of, say, THREE. I felt that it was an insult to God to force myself to go to church and pretend to be paying attention. Therefore, I just stopped going unless I wanted to. I have my own spiritual place I go to when I want to think about stuff and take a time out; I find more of a connection this way.

-Tim

[Borg4of3]

I go to church every week, more out of habit than out of either obligation or necessity. Its just a routine part of life. I pay attention during the service, but come Homily time, that's when the trouble starts. Sometimes I use the time to ponder stuff on my own; whether personal, spiritual, or whatever; maybe I listen to the preacher, especially if its the loud, funny, and intellegent Father Ed - or I sleep and try not to look asleep :p I hate when your head bobs and you catch yourself - you know someone saw it and you just pray that they're asleep instead :D

To bring up a new point, Church services take a whole new feeling during stressful times. During Basic Training, for example, Sundays seriously felt like a Godsend.

And, oh why not... to complete the picture of my personal routine spiritual life, I use the time before sleeping everynight to pray and 'talk'. I've got my own private little service there, complete with my own 'homily' with only God as my witness. I just hope He doesn't fall asleep :p

[TuffyCatt]

Originally posted by Borg4of3
And, oh why not... to complete the picture of my personal routine spiritual life, I use the time before sleeping everynight to pray and 'talk'. I've got my own private little service there, complete with my own 'homily' with only God as my witness. I just hope He doesn't fall asleep :p

Yeah, same here. Nightime right before bed seems to be the best time.

I go to church most Sundays, although most times I don't really want to go, not because I don't like it, but out of laziness on Sunday morning. But if the rest of my family goes to church, I go too, which is good thing since it gets me to go. Usually I stay awake and listen to everything (unless I'm more sleepy than usual :yawn: ). Most of the time the sermon is good, but the thing I enjoy most about church is the music. Sometimes there's nothing like it.

[ZorBrak]

I go... not every week, but just about every other when I can, sometimes the sevices can get really boring and I tune out, but sometimes they are very enjoyable.

[RockItShipper]

I go each week, and that'll stay the same until I move out of my parents' house... September's the worst, because I get dragged to the Jewish holiday services in addition.

For the most part, religious services bore me to tears... I'd much rather reflect quietly in something God directly created- not some musty building. Forgiveness, love, acceptance... that's the real beauty in any religion, and it was quite nice hearing that echoed back to me when I read Oscar Wilde's De Profundis.

[Captain Yurika]

I will admit I'm not a regular church goer.
Ok Ok...I haven't gone all summer. It's too hard to get up in the morning. BUT when I do go I'm all the more glad for it. I guess I think you should go when you feel the need for and not force yourself to go every week (unless you want to) because after awhile you Don't get anything out of it.

[Galaxia]

I'm kinda in the middle of "I'm very attentive to the wonderful service" and "I go to church to catch up on sleep", if that's possible. I just kinda drift off to my own little world and think about stuff whem the homily comes, but I sure as heck don't snore, lol.

[JustJack]

Originally posted by SpikeJet143
I'm kinda in the middle of "I'm very attentive to the wonderful service" and "I go to church to catch up on sleep", if that's possible. I just kinda drift off to my own little world and think about stuff whem the homily comes, but I sure as heck don't snore, lol.

Pretty much the same here. Kinda....
Occasionally our evangelist has something good, new, original to say. But that's REALLY rare. And occasionally he cracks a joke worth laughing at. But most of the time I sit there writing new ideas for stories, drawing, or occasionally sleeping. But I hate to be asleep when it comes time to sing, and I'm snoring. Uhg...

[Andy Mancini]

I can't really say. The last I went to church for non-funeral dealings was six years, three months ago, so I don't remember. I really don't count the two funerals as "church", basically because I was their for the person, not "to be at church".

[Vin]

Originally posted by Barb Gordon
I like going to church from time to time. Sometimes I'm bored, sometimes I'm not. The times I would go to church was begin I was an alter server....and you have to pay attention there are risk getting embarassed in front of the entire congregation for getting to bring the book up or something. I've done that at least once or twice in the five years that I've served. Some of the sermons were very interesting to listen to, funny, moving, they made you think. Yet sometimes I would zone out without realizing it. I think I basically go to church to reconnect. I'm all right with organized religion, but not a big fan of it. I don't see why I can't just practice on my own and be just as spiritual. And at least for me, church is nothing but meeting up with friends. So yeah, if you're bored, just don't go, watch tv or something. I mean, I would rather not attend then insult the priest by almost falling asleep, reading a book, or showing that I'm not listening and am bored.

~Barb

Barb, I am an altar server, too. I have been one for probably six years now. One time though, I had to ring the bells, and I totally zoned out because I was thinking of work (I work at the church as a receptionest). I was just staring into space and the other altar servers (which were my siblings), were trying to get my attention, so I could ring the bells.

[Galaxia]

Originally posted by Vincent Benenati


Barb, I am an altar server, too. I have been one for probably six years now. One time though, I had to ring the bells, and I totally zoned out because I was thinking of work (I work at the church as a receptionest). I was just staring into space and the other altar servers (which were my siblings), were trying to get my attention, so I could ring the bells.

I was an altar server from 6th grade until I started college. I remember during one service (I think it was Christmas eve midnight mass) when one of my fellow servers was snoring really loud during the homily, heh. I had to elbow him to stop snoring because he got really loud ^^()

[The Old Maid]

Hoo boy, did you pick a topic!

This could take all night, but maybe best to cut it short. I grew up in a house of church shoppers. They didn't like something? They'd move on. Now that makes sense in, say, choosing a movie, but some people just ain't happy anywhere. So I have been :

dropped off in front of church (as a child) by drive-away adult

in 5 churches (4 denominations) as a child because of these shoppers

in just 2 after moving out (i.e. my own choice). One of these was the daily chapel at my college & the other is the church I started in as a drop-off all those years ago!

reading the books of Philip Yancey ; while watching Dr. Frederick K.C. Price's sermons on TV during the weekend ; while listening to local Catholic radio on my way to work days. (There's also an evangelical channel, but they started talking about God and guns one day & it weirded me out. It was like The Militia Channel. Maybe I caught them on a bad day or during a commercial program, but I don't listen to them anymore.)


Do I sometimes fade out during weekly services? Yep. But everyone, including those performing the service, are human and this will happen. (Now if it happens a LOT, maybe you could mention the topics you'd like to hear a lesson about. A good leader WANTS to talk about things that have special meaning for you.)

Basically the purpose of communal worship is not because God needs it, but because you do. Can you worship God anywhere? Absolutely. But you need the company of other believers to keep your head screwed on straight. Secondly the group is more likely to bring worthy causes to your attention, keeping you from feeling too sorry for yourself. These same church-shoppers I mentioned before? Well, they don't even go to services now. (Their church has a sermon on TV.) Neither do they give. Or if they do, it's a big secret. And they are the most high-strung, paranoid critters I've met in a long time. To top it off, they look down on me and my church because it's not theirs (which they don't attend).

Having too little contact with other people can mess with your head.

[Pilmedium]

I don't go to church, and would probably hate it if I did.

[Elven Moon]

I don't go to church, but maybe every other holiday I do for family or friends.

[Spooky05]

i go to church every sunday and i have a youth meeting every wednesday. during the sermon, i can hardly pay any attention. our southern baptist preacher isn't the most enthusiastic speaker i've ever seen. i would write, but i sit next to my youth leader/music director and his wife, and i don't want them to be angry with me.

at the wednesday youth meetings, i can actually voice my opinion about certain topics and have a real discussion, so my mind dosen't wander as often, even tho the topic we're on does. (including a time when chris, our youth leader, said whenever he thought of God talking to him, he thought of 'monty python and the holy grail.' that and two of the guys in my youth group know l33t sp34k.)

but now, for some reason, i really would like to go to a catholic church where they gave the sermon in latin (here they give the sermon in spanish instead of latin...stupid texas... [kicks]). i've always been fascinated by the stories of the saints and other things about the catholic church.

[Kat Pryde]

I go to church every Sunday and I sing in the choir **shhhhh, I lip-sync at some times cause I'm so sleepy by I watching SNL every Saturday**, sometimes reading da scriptures, sometimes I am the acolyte, I'm really cative there.
And I go to the youth meetings <and some crazy non-church involvement they have> ever Friday.
But during the service, when I'm not doing anything, my eyes get sooo heavy and I try not to snooze ;) .

=^-^=

[turbomog007]

I go to a church every Sunday. :) And I also am sent to a Christian school which has a ½ hour type sermon class dealey every other day and on the other days has a Bible class. I actually learned to like going church though i still find it funny that the patron Saint of my church is Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas). :p

[JustJack]

Originally posted by Spooky05
i go to church every sunday and i have a youth meeting every wednesday........
at the wednesday youth meetings, i can actually voice my opinion about certain topics and have a real discussion, so my mind dosen't wander as often, even tho the topic we're on does.

Same here. BUT, the problem at my church is that 95% of the class is terribly closed minded and extremely fundamentalist, except for me, my friend Amanda, and maybe one or two of the college kids that sit in. I got yelled at for "questioning everything they said"...which in my opinion, the only way we'll learn anything and agree on something is if we question it. But apparently that sets a bad example. So I just told them "Well if you say something wrong/stupid, fine...corrupt their young and ignorant minds...I wont bother helping your butt." :D I'm a trouble maker.

[Spooky05]

Originally posted by JustJack
:D I'm a trouble maker.

so am i. thats how i got the nickname at my old church of 'dark side.' they didn't like me or my views, i didn't like them or their views (even tho i was raised there) so i left. yet the nickname of dark side has stayed...

[Chikorita]

I go every week..sunday morning,sunday night,and wednesday night. I'm going tonight..but I never sleep,even if I want to. 16yr olds never sleep at church..and if you did,the Pastor will call you out..by name =o so I watch it..lol
and some sermons are kinda boring,but I try to get something out of it

[The_Bookworm]

Forgive me if this is an old topic, but I've been ghosting here for weeks, first getting to know the place and then waiting for registration to be reenabled after the big server move.

I do go to church, and I do listen attentively to the sermons...but I come away depressed more often than enlightened. It seems it's the same acursed message every week: "God is great and good. You are a worm. You deserve to burn in hell. You must trust Him or you will burn. You have no right to question His wisdom. He gives you everything you need and nothing he believes you don't or that will harm you."
Maybe it's good that I feel something, at least it means I'm moved, I'm compellled, I'm actually thinking and participating and not just seat-warming...but I thought church was about happiness and joy and desiring to worship and praise? It feels more like an obligation sometimes to me, like if I don't do this I will be punished, or at least feel overwhelming guilt. I haven't gone to church the last couple of weeks--was on vacation in Ponotoc, Mississippi, great country, nightly auctions, 80-acre flea market open on Saturday--and I actually felt a lot freer not being forced to succumb to a weekly round of Protestant tyrranny.

Maybe it's unfulfillment. Like I need to hear something more when I listen to a sermon, such as why He never gives reasons for his actions, choosing instead to hide behind platitudes like "He works in mysterious ways" or "He doesn't work that way" or "God doesn't make mistakes". I'd respect a God a lot more who did make mistakes and owned up to them, rather than a seemingly infallible being who runs his business so arbitrarily, pulling one-eighties on previous positions and never feeling the need to explain Himself. This is more the sort of equivicating behavior you'd expect from a politician than a Supreme Being.

I'm no atheist. I consider myself a modified Deist. I believe God exists. I just don't trust the blighter all that much anymore.