i still don't go to church

It's been almost a year and a half... and yet spiritually, mentally, relationally, I'm in the best shape I've ever been. How does that work??

I'm not questioning the value of church or any specific church, but the formula in which many of them appear to be carried out.

Some part of me foolishly thought I was breaking new ground a couple weeks ago when I made the firm decision to stop trying to attend a church (which had basically become any church) and to start a re-evaluation of what the church was about and what it was supposed to be about. But, as in all things, I've been beaten to the punch.

Donald Miller's "Searching For God Knows What" has been sitting on my bookshelf un-cracked since last Christmas (thanks Mom) and only showed itself a few days back. Not knowing what it was about, I picked it up and read the back cover and realized that I wasn't the only one thinking this way. So far I am very impressed on the written insight it provides into what I think are universal questions about the modern day church. It helps me articulate the thoughts that have been going through my head as well.

Chapter 1: "It seems if there was a formula to fix life, Jesus would have told us what it was." Even after reading all the self-help and how-to books in the world, we would still make mistakes and we would still not have everything figured out.

Chapter 2: "...that doesn't sound like a very good god to me. The televangelist can have him, for all I care." Perhaps God is not the god that we, from all numbers of sources, are told to believe He is...