doing "church"

This morning I was thinking about how I miss "church." I don't know for sure what I miss about it so much. I think part of it is someone thinking for me and regurgitating scripture. Part of it might just be the act of going... My "religious" experience makes me just feel wrong to miss it.

I was reading this morning in Romans 14:17-18,
"For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men."

I'm probably taking this out of context - again - but what is says to me is that it's not about the practices and processes and procedures, it's about the heart. It's about serving the purposes of God - righteousness, peace and joy. As we serve God in these things we are acceptable to Him BUT the reality is, we can't "do" these things on our own. Righteousness, peace & joy can only be "attained" by relationship with Him, by walking in His grace with the help of His Holy Spirit. They can only be found as a result of our pursuit of Him.

So I'm not saying the act of going to church on sunday is bad or good. I think we as christians need to gather together but the point of the gathering is to pursue and praise God and edify each other. So if our going to church isn't doing that then maybe we need to think about why we are going...