The church is a community unlike any other. Years ago author and scholar CS Lewis wrote that:
"When I first became a Christian, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn’t go to the churches and Gospel Halls. I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music."
That's not terribly flattering, is it :) But in truth, we don't gather in community primarily to experience excellence in music, or preaching etc because we are not consumers of religious products. Preachers and musicians should strive for excellence in these areas, but that is not the main thing - there is something more than that happening. Lewis goes on:
"But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and when you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots, it gets you out of your solitary conceit."
The gift of our remarkable community is, as Lewis observes, our diversity - different outlooks, education and so on. And the richness of our time together depends in part on encountering God in music and word, but just as much on leaving our solitary lives and encountering God in others. Which means that your presence this Sunday may just be the means for someone else to encounter God.