I still remember the joy and freedom that came from stepping out of the institutional/organizational world of Christianity. In fact, that sense of relief is still with me almost four years later. John White forwarded a letter from a pastor recently out of a traditional church staff position:
As of midnight Saturday night…I AM FREE! No more institutional church. I am no longer on staff at my church… Please pray for Kristie and me (and our kids) as we "detox" for the next three months (or so). We want to follow God, relax, and rest in His presence… Sunday morning we slept in–the first Sunday morning "sleep-in" in my adult life… Then at 4:00 PM we went to a friend’s house for a house church meeting… We played some horseshoes in the backyard before dinner. We enjoyed communion together and ate a meal together. I got my guitar out and played a few songs and then the host popped in a worship CD, passed around some song sheets and we sang a few more worship songs. One lady’s dad who lives in Oklahoma had recently been diagnosed with cancer (lymphoma) and she was really upset, so we spent quite some time laying our hands on her and praying for her dad. It was a very moving time… The freedom is almost overwhelming!
But what is life like after detox? I have noticed a few shifts over the past year or so that are probably worth noting. I do not want the institutional-church lifestyle now any more than four years ago, yet…
- Community life, authentic community life is challenging and requires attention, courage, and work
- There are honeymoon seasons of church life and then times to deal with the conflicts and underlying agendas that must be honestly faced
- We, as people, still resist our primary calling to live missionally in a broken world
- We still have a responsibility to see his kingdom life reproduced in others and to step out of our comfort zones to do so
- If we want to reproduce authentic community and missional living, we must be living it ourselves
- We constantly find new ways to be selfish, cantankerous, self-serving, comfort-seeking, love-resisting people indicating how deeply we will always need God’s grace and strength in this life
But hey… we can still sleep in on Sundays (perhaps)! The missional adventure is more exciting than I ever thought it would be! Authentic community life is worth all of the challenges that go along with it.
In short, life after detox is more challenging than I expected, yet I am more convinced than ever that God is unleashing his church… one person, one simple church at a time… and it’s awesome to be a part!
Comments
9 responses to “Life After Detox”
Hi there,
I have enjoyed reading your thoughts on missional living, simple church, etc.
I’m glad from the freedom *to* be all God has called me to be. But I’m saddened by the idea of someone rejoicing they are free *from* a community of faith (albeit flawed in many ways — they *all* are).
You make it clear the grass seems greener to you and others you know on the “non institutional” side of the fence. I can appreciate that! I also appreciate your honesty in dealing with how much maintenance the grass still needs!
But may I submit to you there are *plenty* of fully-devoted, missional followers of Jesus *within* the “institutional” church? And since we can both agree Jesus loves the *whole* church (again, every facet has failings), not every meets-on-a-sunday-in-a-building-with-a-choir-and-paid-staff is dead and worthy of the junk heap (which is the underlying between-the-lines message I seem to get from reading this most recent post).
Please believe me when I say I understand there are individuals (sadly, *many* of them) who have been hurt and found themselves disillusioned, wondering where faith can live in a bureaucracy (nee theocracy).
But Jesus loves the *whole* church, so may I gently suggest you show more care in describing the places you once found yourself? I have longings for community which look and feel and sound and taste very different from my current Vineyard Church setting — and which is a far cry from the Lutheran Church setting of my youth. But I consider myself richly blessed in the heritage of faith I am now continuing.
Your use of the word “detox” seems (to me) to equate your past church experiences with destructive things like drugs & alcohol, & other stuff that is so toxic you have to “detox” from it. Perhaps your passionate feelings errantly colored your view? While trying very hard not to minimize any pain or abuse you may have suffered in your past at the hands of “church”, it seems to me you may be burning a bridge or two.
It reminds me of a famous Mark Twain quote:
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Maybe, just maybe, there will come a day when you can look back (not with horror and revulsion at the excesses and absurdities, but instead) with fondness and wonder at the miraculous way God has led you to the place you currently are.
Rather than spend time elevating one form of church and denegrating another (and, by extension, elevating and denegrating people on one side of “the fence”)– perhaps a better way would be to honor both, since Jesus loves both?
Tomas Perez’ article “Nurse Logs” is a wonderful picture of life in a transitional society, and can be read here: http://acompanyoffriends.blogspot.com/2005/12/nurse-logs.html.
I also wrote recently on this topic. For a perspective on the value of a “both-and” view (or, more pointedly, on the errors of an “either/or” view), see my article “Of Sneetches and Snail Shells” here: http://canopenerboy.blogspot.com/2006/10/of-sneetches-snail-shells.html
Peace
~ Keith
Sorry — in my original comment the link to Tomas Perez’ article “Nurse Logs” is broken because there is a “dot” at the end which does not belong. The actual link is: http://acompanyoffriends.blogspot.com/2005/12/nurse-logs.html
~ Keith
Greetings, Keith. It’s great to have your thoughtful comments here. You seem to be speaking to me (Roger) so I will respond a bit here… needing to be brief because of the nature of “comments.” If others would like to chime in as well, feel free.
I am in love with the church, the whole church, every part of the church, warts, wrinkles, glory and all. In finding a sense of freedom from a “way” of “doing church” I do not mean to, in any way, denigrate any part of Christ’s body. If I have done so, please forgive me. I love and appreciate every person who is fully devoted to Jesus, regardless of their church practices, and am very pleased to have many close friends who are in (and out) of institutional churches.
Please do not throw any church, however organized, on the junk heap! I would not like to see that. Many believers would find themselves without any spiritual input if not for the institutional churches they are part of.
Furthermore, I can honestly and forthrightly say that I, do indeed, fondly look back on all of my past church experiences and appreciate God-at-work through each church family I have been a part of. I am not looking back with horror and revulsion… nor with some sense of having been abused. I still have great friends from each of my past church experiences and only a handful of “broken” relationships that are the result of trust being broken: personal issues, not corporate/church ones.
Nevertheless… (ah, the “but” word)… the “system” we have imposed upon church, the “way we do church,” is largely a human-engineered system. With great intentions we have developed a complicated, business-modeled, organizational methodology to our expression of, what is meant to be, a living church. The result of this has been disastrous if we consider what the church is meant to be. It is the system, the methodologies, and even our basic premise of “what church is” that have largely confined “the church” (a Holy Spirit led and inspired outside-the-box movement) to simply being a lot of boxes that contain some elements of “the church.”
I hope you can hear my heart here. I am not trying to be against anything other than everything that hinders the church from fully reflecting her glory. If my son’s ambition is to be a dishwasher and I know that he has so much more potential, then I am not attempting to put him down (though he may think I am) when I do everything in my power to expose him to other career callings that fit who he is. Does that make sense? That’s my heart. To cry out to the church (whom I love) to consider the potential that is available if we break out of our pre-disposed limitations and explore a vaster world of opportunities as Christ’s own body.
Hope that’s helpful. Love to you!
Hi Roger,
Thanks for clarifying and for unpacking your heart for us all to read/see. That make sa lot of sense.
On the road,
~ Keith
I feel like I need some outside advice.
I am a new pastor starting a missional church, called The Core (www.thecoredowntown.com) designed to reach our city’s downtown area, and give many estranged Christians a “new lease on life in Christ” so to speak.
We believe firmly in House Church, and that the Church is meant to be an organism, not an organization.
But we are not just trying to have a happy little group, we are trying to reach a city, and we expect to have many house churches networking together to accomplish this goal.
So I was thinking about how we are an organism, and I realized that there is no such thing as a disorganized organism (unless it’s dead.) Also, most organisms are very complex by nature.
In this movement, simplicity and informality seem to be important values, and complexity and structure are more or less shunned. But are complexity and structure really our enemies, or do we need to focus instead on using them correctly, and only as we follow the Holy Spirit?
And now a more specific question: What do you do when you have a simple house church that grows too large? Isn’t there some advanced organization required to have a new leader trained to shepherd a new flock when you divide? And isn’t there some kind of structure required for the two groups to stay in communion with one another? It just seems to me that “simple church” can only remain simple if there is no numerical growth… and I don’t believe any of us wants that.
Enjoyed reading your blog. Keep up the good work!
First,in regard to Ryan’s comment, with all due respect, you need to do some more digging into the simple/house church realm Ryan. Complexity and structure aren’t necessarily shunned, just not really needed. The bottom line is, what are you trying to do? Simple church focuses on bringing people and God together in the most intimate and fundamental ways, just as Jesus did, interacting, talking kingdom and being a friend – sharing life essentially. (You can’t give what you don’t have). The organism is based on one-to-one relationships and small group sharing that experience with the presence of Christ among them. It grows in a natural sense and when the group gets big, it splits. There will be natural and supernatural causes. Networking or inter-connectedness will (super)naturally keep the groups working for God in ways human organization theory can’t comprehend. We don’t control it all, it’s God’s paradigm. God says, “don’t worry, be joyful”.
Second, I believe what Roger was expressing/displaying was his joy at coming out of a systematic churchworld that strayed from that simple life lived with Jesus. For myself, I alternated between thinking there was something deeply wrong with church and then me. Of course, I was right and then right again. But after “trying” many churches, I kept coming to the same dissapointing conclusion that I just didn’t fit, the church was hippocritical and often highly “political” in it’s internal affairs, instead of Christ-like. Finding house church and then experiencing a simple life with Jesus and others was … well like getting detoxed, getting sober, getting real. This is in no way meant to denigrate other types or styles of Christianity, my personal experiences and feelings aside. I just think simple church best serves the fundamental expression and purpose of Jesus Christ on earth.
The problem with a no rules club is that you need a rule to make it such a club.
Which leads to your post.
There is statement in the recovery movement that says, “wherever you go, there you are”. When the dust settles, you are still you…no matter if it’s in the 4 walls of a traditional American church, or in a home church. Nobody should leave the traditional church throwing rocks at the sign, but they should leave with grace and thank God that He has them going on a new journey. But you have to remember that for some of the folks in those 4 walls, they have just begun theirs. God knows what He’s doing. He is using the 4 walls and He’s using the home churches. I don’t think one is *right* and one is *wrong*. There are Biblical angles for both, but show me something where there is not a Biblical angle these days.
Very nice discussion. . .