Wow. Your blog teaches me so much. about myself.

Unprogrammed worship to me is the most appealing element, not because it gives me my own private soapbox, but that the focus is on the individual who is speaking, not the non-existent offering, not the non-existent sermon, not the non-existent hymns, not the non-existent statement of faith.

But not all Quakers believe in this way. Some Quakers have services very similar to most other Protestant denominations.

No one asked me to join either, but I took it upon myself because I suppose I’m just a joiner at heart.

Back to your post. I think this proves that people do matter, particularly in a congregation setting, and keeping our members is often just as simple as properly tending our flock.

h sofia, but I AM a lazy yuppie.

GhostGirl, one of the expectations of membership is pledging. I’m not entirely sure on the wording here, and it varies church to church, but there are financial obligations to membership (and you also get to vote).

In grade school, we went to Mass two mornings a week. The homilies were geared toward our ages, so there was something for us to hear. I was also an altar boy, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I liked being involved. And, each grade took turns planning the Mass, and I loved that. You read all the scripture, derive a theme, and then pick the music and compose a little introduction. That was too cool for school. I seriously considered the priesthood based on that.

In my Jesuit high school, there was an optional weekly Mass. Freshman year I always skipped it, but the remaining three years I went pretty regularly. I could have lumped this in with grade school, but the difference here is that I choose to go. In grade school, I had to go. Extracurricular activities usually involved a group Mass. So, during musical rehearsals, we’d have Mass before we rehearsed. Those were good.

I didn’t go to a Catholic college, so going to Mass was way off my radar. Years later, I started attending on Sundays near my house, but also weekday afternoons after work. The big crowds on Sundays didn’t work for me. The sparsely attended weekday Mass did.

So, I guess I need one of two things to make it work for me: a small group of peers, or a degree of privacy. The big public show of Sunday Mass does not work for me, and therefore I don’t do it. Maybe being involved in the service, like I was in grade school, would make Sundays work for me. But that might involve getting mixed up with crazies. That worries me a little.