[stripe_away]

> in "medieval" times people also went to church a lot where someone lectured you from a book,

The idea of church as "someone lecturing you from a book" describes only a few christian denominations, few of which were active/existant in medieval times.

I agree that many churches in the US are "20 minutes singing followed by a 1 hour sermon", which is what you describe, but there are also many denominations where the focus is on the liturgy and the sermon is a side note.

liturgy is basically a spiritual practice you do as a group.

say that week's prayer (from the prayer book)

read the psalm, call-and-response (so the congregation is talking half the time)

say the confession of sins

say the Lords prayer

someone reads 1-2 sections from the bible

a quick sermon

eucharist/communion

[Paul_Clayton]

Most parts of the liturgy are teaching. Scripture readings might compare with text book reading; the Lord's Prayer and other formulaic recitations are often taken from Scripture.

The eucharist is more "ritual" than "overt teaching" but it is meant to call to mind one loaf -> one body and the cost of forgiveness.

The earlier poster's point was more "with similar goals in mind" (i.e., "to create a shared understanding of the world, a nation") rather than emphasizing the mechanism (I think). "Marketable skills" is different from social/civic skills/responsibility.

[stripe_away]

Which doesn't take away from your main point. A liturgically oriented church does build community.