The real purpose of all religion, and of our religious faith, is to search for God and in that search to discover the real truth of our existence. This means to the extent that any religion helps to provide a true pathway for that search, the more valid that religion is, for it is staying focused on its most authentic mission, which is its very purpose for existence, and the more that it veers from this path, the more that it meanders away from truth.
This doesn't mean that religion, religious services, and our religious thoughts should always necessarily be exclusively about finding God and truth, and that this therefore should supersede everything else in our life, including our own actions and deeds. Rather, in actuality, what we do and how we interrelate with others, most definitely is a reflection of who and what we really are, so that, those that are truly searching for God and truth, will not do so with a sword in their hand, but will have instead those requisite qualities of love, patience, hope, courage, and steadfastness.
While religion represents many things to many people, a significant part of religion and religious instruction must be to focus on its actual purpose, which is finding God and through that understanding of God, truth. This means that most of the bells and whistles, along with forms and formulas that structured religion consists of, probably is not the most important aspect of religion, and when done to the extreme, can be damaging, especially when such is distilled into an us vs. others mentality, which seeds divisions between different groups of people that ostensibly believe in the exact, same God.
The fact is that there is only one God, and that God, by definition, must be immutable, eternal, omniscience, and omnipotent, and any religion that does not have those characteristics for God, are not worshipping the God, but some sort of substitute or lesser god, which is a significant flaw within that religion's philosophy. Additionally, all those that are absolutely dogmatic that there is only one way to worship God and it has to be this way and no other, seem to be missing and discounting the reality of human diversity and human cultures, and focusing too much on mankind's arbitrary rules and regulations, which are always superseded by the spiritual truth of what God truly represents.
The main purpose of religion and religious instruction is to find the one true God, and from this God, you will know the truth. This means that anything that brings us closer to God, is also bringing us closer to truth, and anything, no matter how well intentioned that takes us away from God, is also taking us away from the truth.
So too, the God that we search for, is not exclusively within the domain of religious edifices, though these may help, or religious authorities, though these may be of assistance, or religious doctrine, though these have their place, but it is contained within each of our own beings, for every one of us, was created by the very same essence, which is God, so that, in order to find God and truth, that search is within ourselves, and to the extent that others can help us with that search, we should welcome that, for our devoted purpose for being religious is to find God and to know the Truth.