The other day, in a flash of inspiration, I wrote a picture book story about a little girl who yearns for tutus and soon receives so many . . . well, I don’t want to spoil the plot.

But because I’m no artist, I designed a contest and invited graphic designers and illustrators to submit sketches for the project.  The contest is going well, but I’ve noticed something peculiar.

One of the page spreads in my story has this line:  On Sunday, I will wear the white tutu when I go to church.

Two of the artists chose to illustrate that page with charming illustrations, yet BOTH of them wrote the text like this:  On Sunday, I will wear the white tutu when I go to the church.

My daughter, who has been helping me evaluate the submitted sketches, didn’t understand why I pointed out the curious discrepancy.

“They both wrote go to THE church,” I told her. “We don’t say that. We go to church, period. It makes me wonder if the second artist copied the typo from the first.”

My daughter shook her head. “People who don’t go to church don’t say that. They’d say, ‘I’m going down to the church.”

So I’ve been pondering that for a couple of hours.  I say, “I’m going to the church” if I’m going there to drop off a package or meet my husband or pick up something. But when I’m going to a service, I don’t use the. I’m “going to church.”  Who can forget that song we learned as kids:  “This is the way we go to church, go to church, go to church . . . early Sunday morning.”

Why?  I go to THE store.  And to THE doctor.  And to THE hospital. And to THE school . . . unless I’m attending a class, then I’d say I’m “going to school.”

Ah.  So if I’m going to participate in the given activity, I can drop the article. I’m going to church. I’m going to school. I’m going to communion.  I’m going to dinner. I’m going to court.  (Heavens, I hope not.) I’m going into surgery (Okay, let’s forget that one. I can ponder only one mystery of language at a time.)

So now I understand. Maybe folks who don’t go to church don’t know that it’s a participatory experience. They understand going to the church, but not going to church. They’ve never participated with a group of believers who come together to honor and praise and pray and worship God.

So I get it.  I would never say, “I’m going swimming” if I planned to just sit on the shore and watch.

Maybe one day some of those folks who talk about going to the church will come along and jump in.