Why do I not feel like going to church anymore?

[frausensei]

Somehow I haven't gone to church in more than a month - and haven't felt like I'm missing anything. My identity as a Unitarian Universalist is still important to me, but I am reminded of my father-in-law, who is a staunch UU without needing to go to church to reaffirm this fact. Or my own father, for that matter, who stopped going to church when

Comments

[damej]

Involvement in a church is often as much about structured time and social ties as it is about religious belief. As your life has become busier and Cecily takes more of your time and energy, your need to for that structure has lessened. There is nothing inferior about being a solo practitioner, or worshiping at home with your family (if you feel the need for that "whenever two or more of you are gathered in my name" thing -- although I seem to recall that you are more at the pagan end of the UU spectrum, so that probably doesn't apply).

All the time that my father was working, he avoided church (to the point of arranging for my brother to be baptized on a Saturday, so he wouldn't have to sit through a service). Once he retired, however, he suddenly felt the need to re-join (although he joined the WELS, as the ELCA had become much more liberal than the church he remembered from his childhood). He not only became a member of the congregation, but he also became active on the church's finance and building committees.

People have a finite amount of time and energy for communities (which include work, family and church). As one of those communities begin to take up more or less, involvement in the other communities adjusts accordingly.