It seems to me like the point of churches (or any spiritual organization) is to make it easy to find a local community of people who share one's ethical values

It seems to me like the point of churches (or any spiritual organization) is to make it easy to find a local community of people who share one's ethical values and metaphysical beliefs. Of course, someone could always just make a post on a message board: "Hey, my name's Bill, I live with my wife and two kids over by Grand & Manchester, near the post office... I'm looking to start a local club for people that believe human beings are more than just biological automata and that all souls will ultimately be reconciled to God at the end of time. I go to a lot of local meetups connected to my hobbies, but every time I bring up the Universal Reconciliation thing people start to get uncomfortable or bored, so I was hoping to find some people I could talk about this with..." But then you've basically started a church, so...