One fast Sunday morning, I watched the ward organist come to the chapel early to play prelude, a hymnal in one hand, a screaming toddler in the other.
“I HATE CHURCH!” her son hollered as she hauled him into a pew. After the sacrament had been passed, the organist was the first to take the podium. As she began her testimony, her husband stood and hauled their two-foot-tall bundle of rage into the foyer. She paused, then laughed resignedly into the microphone, “Why do we do this?”
The congregation chuckled—a sound muffled by the restless children of our large, young ward.
“I could say that I come to church because I believe in Jesus Christ, but wouldn’t it be easier to believe in Him at home?" She continued, "But I’m here because I like all of you. I need all of you. And my kids need you. Our family is better at understanding and following Christ because of all of you.”
After her testimony, another sister took the podium and humorously commiserated about how hard it was to get all of her kids fed and dressed and out the door in one piece. But she, too, cherished the community church provided, especially Primary and nursery.
A young man then got up and admitted that even though sometimes he was the one who got dragged to church, he didn’t ever leave feeling the same. He thanked his Young Men leaders for making time for him and added, “It’s hard to come, sometimes. But I never regret coming.”
That day, I learned something important: Church is not always the solution to our problems, but it is a preserve within which we can practice, discover, and share solutions.
We Don’t Do Discipleship on Our Own
Sometimes, church is just hard.
Maybe we’re just too tired to feel spiritual or worthy or optimistic. Maybe we feel like we don’t fit in. Maybe we wonder whether it’s worth all the hassle of getting our family to come. Or maybe we’re tired of coming alone.
Often, after a busy weekend, the last thing I want to do is pack up our diaper bag and organ music and teaching supplies and head to church. I know I’ll likely end up in the mother’s room or the foyer, wondering, “Why am I even here?”
On the hardest Sundays, I somewhat sarcastically hear a toddler’s echoing protests in my memory—“I hate church!”—but I don’t hate church. I hate feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and inadequate. And each of those feelings holds a pretty strong case for why I shouldn’t be trying to do any of this discipleship stuff on my own.
A Problem-Full Preserve
I deeply appreciate Melissa Inouye’s observation on the value of local wards:
“Church is not problem-free. It is problem-full, in the sense that all the problems of humanity can be found here, in our little microcosm. But if life is not about avoiding problems, but instead, learning how to identify them and respond to them creatively and collectively, what better place to do it than here, among many sisters and brothers I would not otherwise see?”
(quote from Melissa’s book, Sacred Struggle)
Church is messy. It’s messy because people are there, and people come with all kinds of gifts, problems, questions, struggles, doubts, convictions, and needs. But Christ declares in no uncertain terms: That’s the whole point.
“Let all bitterness … and anger, and clamour … be put away from you … And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31–32).
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12).
I’ve moved around and attended a variety of wards. Every chapter of life has introduced its own questions to answer, problems to solve, and gifts to share. And everywhere I go, there are sisters and brothers ready to receive all of it. They inspire me to keep my arms wide open for whatever others are bringing to church with them.
Bring it. All of it. Let’s work on it together.
We can’t know Him, follow Him, or truly love Him without each other.
Recommended for you:
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