Gang,
Below is a comment I entered on another blog in response to a post, in part, on being very serious about faith in Jesus but finding it impossible to be comfortable in any church. (I think I express myself most clearly in conversation.)
For years Evie and I have known a similar struggle.
And, as my comment mentions, this is an increasingly common phenomenon among Jesus followers in America.
The number of Americans with strong faith in Jesus who have given up on what the "church" has become and are unaffiliated is large, and growing.
None of the "Nones" I know personally are happy about their struggles to live in Christian community, but continue to be Nones because they're unhappier when they try being in a church.
And, the institutional church's answer to us seems to be, "Take it or leave it." That's probably not really its answer, but it feels that way.
Anyway, here's what I wrote.
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My heart truly goes out to you over your inability to find a "church" where you, as you say, fit. As you know, I/we are at a similar place.
The social worker from the home who works with Independent Living residents did a sort of initial interview with us a few weeks ago and raised the issues of religious faith and church affiliation. We said that our faith is the most important thing in our lives.
And, regarding church attendance, we described ourselves as "nones."
I'm not up on all of the latest stats, but my guess is that the Nones is the fastest growing religious group in America.
I/we believe more passionately than ever. We LOVE the Lord more than ever...
...could it be that this is why we're finding it so hard to find a comfortable place in an increasingly institutionalized and consumer-based, uh, church world?
I remind myself that what presents itself as the church is entirely foreign to the community that formed around the first disciples. (Read Acts 2:42-47 & 1 Corinthians 11, 12 and 14.)
There are MILLIONS in this country like you,...us. That's the reality for a reason.
Inclinations such as your "Beer and Hymns" may actually resemble New Testament community more than what is available in any so-called "church" near you.
Certainly, to be faithful, we must "not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing,"...
...but going to "church?"
I dunno.
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Some reflections:
1. The church has multiple mission fields.
One of them is among an increasingly large group of people who already believe in Jesus. This group consists, almost exclusively, of people were once a part of the church but find that today's church interferes with their relationship with Jesus. These people, from my experience, for the most part, want desperately want to actually be involved in the church. You'd think that, with a little humility and some compassion and love...along with repentance by the church, these people would be easy pickins for the church. Yet, my honest belief is that many of these Nones get the message from the church that we can "take it or leave it."
2. I can't help concluding, and excuse me for singing the same old tune, that this is a problem with shepherd domination in the institutional church. Shepherds are gentle and moderate. By contrast, the person on whose blog I commented, really, really loves Jesus and is extremely serious about his faith and his lifestyle. Other Nones I know, are like him. They want community that pours fuel on the Spirit fire that burns inside them and they don't get that from contact with the institutionalized local churches they attend which, they often feel, dampens fire. The Nones I know get bored by church. They are unfulfilled. They become frustrated. My sense of awakening movements in the history of the Kingdom is that they were APE centered and that experiencing community in them was specifically intended to pour fuel on fire.
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3. Could it be that the CGGC could reach the Nones by commissioning a, well, subdivision, which empowers APEs to function and to operate almost entirely separately from the current body? Why not allow apostles freedom to be entrepreneurial? Why not set aside all the standard categories assumed by shepherdized, institutionalized churches and allow men and women living in the subsidiary to create new paradigms, that may not even seem like church to the old gang? Require orthodox belief and let everything else alone.
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