Worship - why go to church?

When people ask, "Why should I bother to go to church?", the answer is normally, "To worship God". But what or who is God? That's not an easy one, because the answer really does depend on who you ask.

A good start is to think of the Christian God as the spiritual force supporting humanity, a source for the 'why' of our existence, rather than the 'how'. Each person will interpret this idea in his or her own way. Jesus spoke of his relationship to God as that of a child towards its father, and in his teaching used illustrations ('parables') to show what he meant about God and indeed, the ways in which men and women could work 'in tune' with God.

In all our church services, which happen every Sunday, we Christians express our acceptance of this spiritual force, hearing readings from the bible, singing hymns in praise of God, and hearing sermons which explain how the teachings of Jesus are still relevant to us. In our Holy Communion services, we also remember Jesus' death and his continued presence in our faith, in the sharing of bread and wine.