While it seems that the norm for accomplishing Matthew 18:20 is through going to church—to a physical location where people congregate and follow a specific liturgy—others have found it does not work or support their faith as much as it could. To understand that perspective, Moraya Truman (senior, digital communications) and Madison Vath (senior, English) share why they have decided to keep the Sabbath in a nontraditional way.
Moraya Truman:
Church can bore me, not because I don’t care, but because something in me craves more than sit-stand-sing routines. Believe me, I want to enjoy church, but it often feels like something is lacking. When I opened up about this, someone told me, “you get what you put into church.”
No matter how much effort I put into singing or my full attention to sermons, I still often walk away feeling empty. I thought this might just be something wrong with me, as those around me didn’t seem to be struggling. I’ve been Adventist my whole life, and at some point, it had all become head knowledge, messages I had heard hundreds of times before. I needed depth.
While I had been struggling with this connection back home, my mother had invited me to join her Sabbath School class. I was by far the youngest person there. Sitting beside those who had published theology books, who worked at the Biblical Research Institute, and regular church members, I found myself surrounded by a spiritual family.
Often, the class evolved into a room of shared commentary. Everyone engaged and shared their own opinions, fueled by their knowledge and experience. For the first time in a long time, I felt spiritually awake. In this space of spiritual connection, I often found myself wishing that we could continue dialoguing through the church service. This Sabbath School became my reason to come to church, even if the rest of the experience struggled to connect.
This past semester, a friend of mine, Derek Wonenberg (senior, theology), reached out to me about an Anchor Group he was starting called The Wrestling Club. Every session leaves me wishing time could freeze so those conversations could last forever. Week after week, that group proved what I had been feeling for years, that I grow in small circles, not big rooms.
The church isn’t the building, but the people within it. The earliest Christians met in homes, gathering in circles where scripture was discussed and wrestled with. Faith isn’t one-size-fits-all. For some of us, pursuing a personal connection with God looks less like pews and more like conversations.
Madison Vath:
My faith journey has taken a bit of an interesting route since being here at Andrews. I’ve found that I need to start learning about who God is for me. Not the God of my mom, or my friends. Not the God that I grew up hearing about in church, but the God for Madison. Who is He to me? While I wholeheartedly agree that having a church family is important, I am at a point in my life where I have taken a step or two back from it, just for the sake of learning about who God is without a number of voices in my head.
Over the summer, I was really struggling with my faith and wondering if I should just give it up entirely. I had a conversation with a friend who did not try to herd me back into the faith or the church; she told me, “believe whatever brings you peace.” I took a bit of time to mull over her words and realized that God does bring me peace, and I have been on this personal faith journey ever since. I have a friend who recently graduated from Andrews but returns to this area quite frequently, and we try to meet up for coffee whenever we can. One of the topics of discussion is our faith journey and where we are in our relationship with God. We always pray before parting ways, and it brings comfort to my soul.
Sabbath is still very important to me, even though I don’t attend church. I tend to sleep late into the morning and then do things that bring me joy, like bake or cook something and read. I really should start getting into nature more. I’ve learned that I can find God outside of church and that one-on-one time with friends can be incredibly beneficial in realizing my stance regarding certain faith-based topics.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.