Worship as a social act

 I got another interesting question (edited for brevity): 

How do you handle this situation?

I grew up Protestant for most of my life...As a baby I was technically apart of the Orthodox Church as a toddler went to RC. Then elementary age up i went to Protestant.

When looking for a church, the two things that are most important to me are 1- the service (is what is being taught correct, Biblical, growing me closer in faith) 2- fellowship (are the people around me supportive, friendly, giving me a sense of belonging & community)

I found the RC church to be correct in teaching. Which to me is number one. But i also i found a lovely community to fellowship with. I don't really have friends or family that are super close with me. So fellowship is something i find very valuable.

Now the friends and family i do have are Protestant. I will tell them those are the two things I look for in a church. Their response “well you should be going to church for the message, it’s not a social event” this is the constant response I get back. Even though I tell them I feel my faith is deeper in RC. They will brush that part aside and comment on the fellowship/social aspect.

Any advice?

 

My response: 

 

I find that an interesting reaction because Protestants often are very much into the social aspect of church life as much as any one. Doctrine and teaching is very important to many of them, that is true. In fact, that is why many of them came into existence in the beginning to supposedly correct false doctrine they were hearing elsewhere. But there is a very clear social aspect to many Christian denominations.

So, having said that, I don't know what kind of advice I can give you to Protestants who take that "it's not a social event" kind of take. I guess depending on how much of a contrarian stinker you want to be , I think I would make the argument that going to church is precisely a social event. Now, hear me out...

 

Now, it is not a trite or partying social event like a birthday party or a game night at the Kiwanis, yes. But the question I would ask is, "Is not the act of worship social in nature?" Our God is a living god, and as such, the very act of prayer and worship is to engage in a social way with our creator. In Catholic parlance, we call that entering into Communion. To commune with something is to "to converse or talk together, usually with profound intensity, intimacy, etc.; interchange thoughts or feelings." Is that not inherently a social act? Therefore worship is in inherently social act.

 

Likewise, from a Catholic perspective, when we enter into Communion in the Catholic world, Communion is not just a "God and me" social act. It is simultaneously a "God and we" and "we and thee" social thing. We enter into communion with each other in the fullness of Faith at the altar, joining ourselves in full communion with all the faithful across time, i.e. the "so great a cloud of witnesses" that it talks about in the Epistle to the Hebrews. We become one body, the Church with Christ at the foot of the cross and through the power of His Resurrection.

 

This is why we are sticklers about not receiving Communion in other Protestant denominations. Communion should be a pure and total entering into of profound intimacy with both God and Christ's body, the Church. Protestants who have chosen to separate themselves from the full Body of Christ are living in a form of broken communion. The Sacraments should never be an occasion of sin, and entering into communion with those who chose to live outside the fullness of the Church is at the very least engaging in a lie where we are pretending the whole kingdom of God is not broken and separated in that way. That, in itself, would be an act of disunion, the opposite of communion. I am not going to harp on that, but my point for this discussion is that "going to church" should always be an inherently social act, both toward God and toward the whole Communion of Saints and the Body of Christ here on Earth.

 

If Sunday worship is nothing more than "going to church for the message"-something has gone very wrong indeed. Because the message is about Communion. The message is about building the Kingdom of God. You build the Kingdom of God by being social in the very act of worship. The New Testament goes on and on about that. So, I guess at the end of the day, I would say to these Protestants with whom you are conversing that if you are going to a church "for the message" but that message doesn't include entering in to the fullness of Communion in all its levels and that worship is not inherently a social act, maybe they should take their own advice and go to a Church (i.e. the Catholic church) where the fullness of the Gospel message is proclaimed.