Derek Thompson

If you play Settlers of Catan, the goal is to win, the purpose is to have fun.

And Church with God has, I believe, both a goal and a purpose, a strong goal and purpose.

You are there to be with other people, but you're also there to worship a higher power who cares for you and controls the universe.

Whereas if you just join a book club,

Right.

It's a bit of a thinner culture because there is no God equivalent.

There's just I either like the book or I don't.

And other organizations that sometimes, quote unquote, do the work of church that bring together a community often have excuses, so to speak, for bringing people together that are thinner than God.

we are part of a tribe or a community that has a loving God that we're trying to build a relationship with.

It's a little more ad hoc.

It's just like we bowl.

We like bowling.

If you're free on Thursday, we're going to bowl.

We love reading nonfiction books and discussing them.

If you like the last book we read on Marxism, you're going to love it.

If you don't like Marxism, you might want to skip this round.

And so there's a distinction, I think, between some of the communities that are quote unquote doing the work of church and church itself.

And that leads to a second thought, which is that I'm very interested in this idea that, you know, I think some people say, if you knock God off the pedestal, it creates a vacuum for spirituality, and that vacuum has to be filled with something.

And you're saying no.

In fact, what we see in the data is that in many cases, that vacuum is filled with something