Keep It Local

The local chamber of commerce is pushing the idea that we should "Keep It Local: Work, Shop, Live, Play."  I am a big fan of the idea of buying local.  I see the benefits both in turns of economic benefit for the local community but also the environmental impacts of such practices.  To be perfectly honest I am not a perfect follower of this practice even if I am a solid believer in it.  As I was looking at the tagline from the chamber I thought what they are missing is worship.

Should we be worshiping local?  Years ago, churches were built around this very concept, local worship.  Communities walked to their local church and there was an expectation that people who participate in the church closest to them (of their chosen denomination of course).  The rise of the car, the commuter mentality, and an increase in consumerism in selecting a church as radically changed this.  People switch between churches and denominations based on the personal needs and desires of the individual family.  I am currently benefiting from this in my current church.  Several of our members drive further to get to our church then they would have to go to reach another United Methodist or UCC congregation.

When I think about worshiping locally I don't think we need to only think about going to the closest church, even though that would have some positive environmental benefit.  I do think that church and faith is personal enough that there is value in finding the right community for you, even if it is not the closest one.  Maybe when we think about worshiping locally it would mean worshiping with a sense of where you are, who surrounds you.  To worship locally is to attend not only to our relationship to God, but also our relationship to our neighbor.  Churches can often be islands to the sea of people living around them, isolated from the communities they are located in.  Especially in under-crowded sanctuaries our own worship experience can be cut off from the nearest person, whether they are three pews away or right in front of us.

Worshiping locally, like shopping locally is a call for us to be intentional about the people who surround us and to remember that we are connected.  Even in our personal relationship with God, we are called constantly to be in community with our neighbor, whoever they may be.