Why did you start going to church?

[BoylenOver]

What was the primary motivation/impetus for you to begin attending church, whenever that was?

Follow-up: is there a bad reason for regularly attending church?

[RC Vikings]

My Mom and Dad took me there when I was about two weeks old and I'm pretty sure I didn't like it then and I'm still not a big fan but I continue to attend.

[wuapinmon]

My dad made me. Lisa Scherer talked to me at school the next day. She was gorgeous. I kept going back. It was really boring until I got a testimony after taking the discussions for months. Then it all made sense. Sometimes it's boring again, even with a testimony.

[Surfah]

I was a project from the day I was born. My mom went into labor with me on a Sunday. So the EQ decided to come visit at Kahuku hospital. Fear and guilt keep me going.

[wally]

I was a project from the day I was born. My mom went into labor with me on a Sunday. So the EQ decided to come visit at Kahuku hospital. Fear and guilt keep me going.

See, that's interesting. It's not so much the fear and guilt that keep me there on Sundays as much as it is the self-loathing. I don't know where I'd be without a healthy dose of loathing myself.

I was born a Marmon and I be a Marmon 'til I die.

[Indy Coug]

Because I was led to believe that fire and brimstone were a bad combo.

[Moliere]

I started going when I was one month old. I really had no choice in the matter given my inability to walk or crawl, although I screamed loudly a lot to get out of sacrament meeting and any other meetings.

I enjoyed church as a kid and a teenager. I even enjoyed it as a college student. To this day I enjoy church. It spiritually refreshes me on a weekly basis. I also have a lot of good friends in my ward that I enjoy being with socially during the week. In spite of my professionally skeptical brain questioning many things Mormon, I still enjoy most lessons but I enjoy them differently now than when I was younger. I'm also pleased with the progress the church is making and I have high hopes for it as my generation and the generation before me gets older. I expect that I will continue to attend church until I die.

[Surfah]

I should add, I really enjoy Church. I like going. I don't like everyone at Church. I am sure some of them don't even like me, maybe many. But I go for me and for my girls. I go to renew covenants that I believe in. Every week isn't a spiritual awakening. But I don't expect it to be. Really, I love just being able to be with my family. No matter how busy or hectic my week is, I love knowing that I'll at least have a few hours with them. I love getting my daughters all dressed for Church and looking their best. And I love sitting with my beautiful girls in the pews. As much as I complain, I do enjoy serving and helping others. It makes me feel good and reminds me to be grateful for my lot.

[DrumNFeather]

I should add, I really enjoy Church. I like going. I don't like everyone at Church. I am sure some of them don't even like me, maybe many. But I go for me and for my girls. I go to renew covenants that I believe in. Every week isn't a spiritual awakening. But I don't expect it to be. Really, I love just being able to be with my family. No matter how busy or hectic my week is, I love knowing that I'll at least have a few hours with them. I love getting my daughters all dressed for Church and looking their best. And I love sitting with my beautiful girls in the pews. As much as I complain, I do enjoy serving and helping others. It makes me feel good and reminds me to be grateful for my lot.

Well said.

[FN Phat]

I started going when I was one month old. I really had no choice in the matter given my inability to walk or crawl, although I screamed loudly a lot to get out of sacrament meeting and any other meetings.

I enjoyed church as a kid and a teenager. I even enjoyed it as a college student. To this day I enjoy church. It spiritually refreshes me on a weekly basis. I also have a lot of good friends in my ward that I enjoy being with socially during the week. In spite of my professionally skeptical brain questioning many things Mormon, I still enjoy most lessons but I enjoy them differently now than when I was younger. I'm also pleased with the progress the church is making and I have high hopes for it as my generation and the generation before me gets older. I expect that I will continue to attend church until I die.

The hardest part of being a member where I live is the fact that there are 3 couples our age (+/- 30). We have nothing in common to the people that live in our area and that are members. I get along best with a man in his early 70s. Mostly because he reminds me of my grandfather. It makes it hard to remain active in the church when you do not connect with those around you. More so for my wife, as I have been working most Sundays for the last year and a half. I still go on splits with the missionaries, attend ward functions, support the primary functions and attend when possible but I can see how it would be very easy to become inactive due to social reasons. The issue has been compounded by the fact that we left what we both believed was the best ward that we have ever been part of. The ward in a small rural town of Idaho made everyone feel that the were truly part of a ward family. Not so much in Western Kentucky.

To answer the original question, I was 12 years old and my parents were projects of the local missionaries to reactivate. I didn't have much of a choice. Overtime I started to really enjoy church and the stability that it brought to my family. My parents, and my only sibling, have since become inactive and I continue to attend with my wife.

[SeattleUte]

The answer for most everyone here is their parents took them. Asking why people stopped going would yield a longer, more varied thread.

[New Mexican Disaster]

My family stopped going for six years after growing up in a die hard family.

One Sunday after we had moved to a new apartment in San Diego, my mother in law was visiting and she really wanted to go to church. So we decided to go with her and take our daughter (only kid at the time). Our daughter enjoyed it so much that we just kept going and within a couple of weeks we had callings and then we needed to be there.

I look at it this way...Mormons are my people and always will be. They frequently drive me crazy, but if I go to church and teach (which is always my calling) then I get to drive the bus and I can emphasize the things that I think are important. Hopefully I can influence the lives of some others for the better and I can help move beyond the stupid cultural crap to soemthing that is more meaningful.

[TripletDaddy]

The answer for most everyone here is their parents took them. Asking why people stopped going would yield a longer, more varied thread.

I think it would be interesting if we could get tooblue's children here to post their answers.

[Pheidippides]

The answer for most everyone here is their parents took them. Asking why people stopped going would yield a longer, more varied thread.

Or why we keep going.

[doctorcoug]

. Not so much in Western Kentucky.

We went to stake conference a couple of weeks back, and I was very surprised at how few people were there. Then my wife told me that our ward is one of the biggest in the stake, and I was floored ( our ward size rivals those in Brazil).

Too bad you guys live an hour from us. My wife has similar feelings about our ward. If it weren't for the few doctors and professors in our ward, the average age on Sunday would be 82.