I guess an attraction of "church" as opposed to a sports club or toastmasters is that it's a place to get outside yourself. A group focused on something beyond themselves. Certainly in Catholicism (and Anglicism) the architecture was set up to do this. All eyes lifted to tall stained glass windows filtering and translating the light from beyond.

A community not enclosed in a circle or square but united in a common direction. Whether God be there or not.