I saw a church sign recently that said, "Visitors Welcome; Members Expected."

      Think about that a minute, especially if you have been feeling that it doesn't matter if you come to church or not. As Episcopalians, we don't preach that if you don't go to church, you're going to hell. We don't believe that God's love works that way. And we don't try to use guilt to motivate people. It's just not who we are.

      But it DOES matter when you're not here. Why?

  One of the main purposes of being part of a community of faith is in the encouragement we get from others to walk in the way of faith, the ways that our baptismal covenant reminds us to act as people who follow Jesus Christ. We need to see examples of people treating others with respect and dignity; we need to stand with others who are working for justice and peace; we need to be reminded that whenever we fall into sin, to repent and return to God.

      None of these actions is easy to do as individuals going it alone, or even as families trying to work together. We need a larger community to stick with our commitments.

   Secular social science has identified the importance of support and public commitment as an important part of reaching goals. There's even a website called stickk.com that is dedicated to helping people set goals publicly (at least as public as their social networks can make it), recruit supporters who in turn send encouraging messages, and then identify a consequence (usually financial) if they don't reach their goal. The idea is to have public accountability for reaching their goals.

       Churches have been doing this sort of thing for centuries. We publicly announce our goal of following Jesus Christ when we are baptized and confirmed, take vows to obey a covenant with God, and we renew that covenant every time someone else is baptized. One of the most important questions we answer at a baptism is "Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support this person in his life in Christ?"

       So, when you don't come to church, you can't support other people in their lives in Christ, and you can't receive support, either.