There are opportunities for spiritual growth and deepening. There are opportunities to serve, to minister to the larger community. There is the formal governing structure the many boards and committees which set policy and guide the institution. But there are also informal power networks, social networks through which communication flows, or doesn t flow. There are unwritten rules of conduct, which one can only pick up after a time.
People come to religious congregations for many reasons.
Sometimes people come looking for help in teaching their children, a place to offer them something more meaningful than the aggressive materialism of the larger culture. Sometimes they are looking for connection, a sense of community. They seek intimacy. Sometimes they seek intimacy with other human beings. And sometimes, they have lots of connections with human beings, but are missing a sense of connection with a Larger Reality, with some sense of the divine, or the Eternal, or God.