Organized religious groups have a certain power because they have buildings and a set time to show up and a means of facilitating strangers. To be left alone in the ocean without one little boat, God knows, would be an awful thing. The church stands against the widespread temptation to think you can have spirituality without community. That's tempting because you don't have to deal with the other people who believe the same things you do but whom you don't like. That certainly would be a very elite company, but it would be dangerous.
Organized religion prevents the possibility of a nullified relationship.
That's a gift. That's a reason for our little boat to sail on a rough sea. Some of you know the New York novelist and religious writer Madeleine L'Engle. Because of who she is and what she has written she is quite in demand on college campuses, including, in particular, conservative religious colleges. L'Engle goes on to note, as many of us have noted, that there is a general understanding and appreciation that the Christian church is founded on love, God's active love, God's promise of love.