a very average looking field
They may not know, but I should tell them, that Carol delivers me breakfast every Monday morning and then cleans the shelter; Amber prays for me whenever she passes MaryEllen street, which she does a lot, because it intersects with the street she lives on. Jeannette texts me weekly to let me know she’s thinking of me, in between doing legal favors for Lydia’s House, because she’s an attorney. I didn’t meet them all at church but they share a (minority) trait in common, which is that they are weekly church attenders.
I know there are many reasons beyond wanting a calmer morning coffee routine that have driven people from parish life. There’s lackluster sermons, crying kids, contemporary praise music, and (the one I hear most often) Trump supporters, sometimes all packed into one pew. Church can be “cringy” as the kids would say, and people are often annoying. But if church is a very average looking field to most onlookers I’d sell everything and buy it; from longitudinal experience I know there’s treasure buried there.