My Wise Commenters

It’s been a little over eight months since I started blogging at Looking for Faith. One of the best things about this experience has been the readers. In general, blogs often get comments that are mean-spirited or empty-headed. I feel blessed that many people have taken the time to write caring and insightful comments here.

I’ve realized that some of these comments belong on the front page, so that other people just stopping by can find them more easily and learn from them like I have, so I’ll be posting comment round-ups every so often now.

Several days ago, I posted about the fact that “More Church Does Not Equal More Spirituality” and was feeling a little down afterwards. Reading these comments helped me….

Hafidha Sofia:

The phenomenon I’ve noticed is that newcomers get super involved in church activities because they’re enthused, and then eventually church activities become chores as they become less “new” and less enthused. But somehow, that newfound spirituality they once felt and that committee-joining fervor they once felt have become conflated, and it’s hard to let go of the latter without feeling like one’s giving up on the former.It’s also hard to not let being disappointed about committees and “church politics” affect one’s feelings about the spirituality.

Jacqueline:

Volunteering alone does not create spirituality. I think that they augment what we do on our own. Granted, I am not one with a huge spiritual practice unless you count sleeping in… but I know that I go to church more for community then for spirit. It is my solo exploration that drives my spiritual life… not the folks sitting around me on any given Sunday.

Will:

Some things that folks volunteer for at church are spiritual and some things are work. In my program council days, I told people to be sure to balance the two. And only you can decide which are the work things and which are the things that turn you on spiritually. For me, for example, doing yard work around the church was spiritual in an odd way, while to most people it was work. To others, working on the annual stewardship drive was spiritual but to me it was pure work–stepping in just to fill a void (because /someone/ had to do it) rather than enjoyment.

So mix in an adult ed class or a small group ministry thing along with those things that you feel obligated to do out of a sense of duty.

There are also two in-the-comments discussions from longer ago that stick out in my mind as memorable and (for me) enlightening: the first was with Chalice Chick, discussing how Unitarian Universalist churches should respond to domestic violence, and the second was with Fausto, discussing sexism in Unitarian Universalist congregations.

Thanks, readers and commenters, for a great eight months! I’m excited to continue working on this site, and look forward to hearing from you in the months ahead.