Christian believing stays alive by being “fed.”

…daily prayer and religious reading and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, “Faith”)

For ten years after my saving moment, I just simply lived, basking in the marvelous wonder of the Saviour. I returned to Arizona, got a job that gave me financial security, and felt much comforted whenever I had a quiet moment alone with the Lord. And though I read widely and in depth about Christian experience, I didn’t attend church very often. Instead, I stepped back, watching passively as my loyalty to the denominational beliefs I’d held since childhood faltered and faded. Then the above quotation from Lewis crossed my path, and I thought: “What do I believe?”

What I’ve now come to appreciate is that the varied doctrines and practices of Christian churches usually spring from their attempt to give form to wonderful, but very abstract, kernels of Christianity. Because of that, the particular denomination we choose to attend isn’t as important as the fact that we do attend. For me today, being in a Christian house of worship helps to keep my beliefs “alive in [my] mind” in ways that wouldn’t occur in some other place. (Driving into the Dawn, chapter 21)