Transition update
May 28, 2009 by churchless
Filed under Making the Transition, Sunday Meetings
These past two Sundays have been my first experience outside the institutional church. Ever. Sure, I’ve skipped a few “services” (I’m beginning to loathe that term) in our lifetime, but otherwise we’ve been active, faithful members of a Southern Baptist church since birth. On the first Sunday, my wife and I slept a little later than usual, then we went to a local restaurant for breakfast. We joked about calling it, “The Church at Waffle House.” Last Sunday, we enjoyed a long Memorial Day weekend visiting with family members who probably wondered why we didn’t make our usual “statement” by going to some random worship service in the area and leaving the rest of them at home.
This opens up a whole new perspective for me. I once looked with pity upon my “lost” neighbors as I would drive past them on the way to Sunday meetings at my “local church.” If they knew the truth about the fires of hell, they would change their self-indulgent ways, find their place in the nearest evangelical pew, and get their heaping share of guilt and manipulation every week like the rest of us. Well, that’s how I used to think. Now I look with pity upon my evangelical neighbors who go through the Sunday morning ritual when they could be sleeping in, or enjoying time in their flower gardens, or taking their kids to the lake.
It can be feel very odd when you distance yourself from the institutional church. Hang in there. The freedom is better than any awkwardness.
(I’m putting this comment here because this article was the first thing sent to my e-mail from *Churchless* in a while).
I’m glad that you’re enjoying the freedom of spending your Sunday mornings outside of the IC. Like Freeman said… It can feel odd to distance yourself from it. Especially since it was pretty much a part of growing up.
So… what’s the next step?
I have been thinking a lot about churchlessness. Several fellow Christians try their best to lead me back to the IC. I’m finding more reasons not to go. My instincts are to give these people all the reasons why the IC isn’t working (that may sound harsh, but it pretty much sums up what seems to be going on without me having to find a more diplomatic way to put it). And in lieu of that, I know I need to focus on what I think is the RIGHT way to do Christianity.
How about y’all, O Churchless? Now that you’ve dissociated yourself from the IC, what are you finding out about Churchless Christianity?
Personally, now that Sundays aren’t the staple of my Christian life, I’m actually examining how to love other people and what opportunities I have to do that. Right now, from what I see, that is the next step for me.
It’s actually hard, most of the time, to figure out how to live as God wants me to live (especially since I don’t hear the Big Voice) when it doesn’t involve Sunday “services.”
I’ve always thought that the best way to do a Sunday worship service was to actually get up in the morning and go “SERVE” someone as your spiritual act of “WORSHIP”. That to me would be worship service. (Now, if only I could find others near me that think the same way . . . )
I haven’t checked this blog in a while. new name, same great taste.
I wonder about the isolation churchlessnes can lead to. You’ve talked about (in other posts more specifically) that, while sunday service certainly isnt the only way to ‘do church’, there IS something important about a group (non-family, or better yet, extra-family) that gathers and supports one another on a consistant basis.
While that certainly doesn’t mean ‘meet at 10:30 every sunday at the same building, go inside, sing 20 minutes, listen for an hour, sing 10 more minutes, then leave. repeat weekly.’ It has to mean something. How is your praxis forming?
You’ve talked about the trap of house churches, and how they simply institutionalize a smaller, mini-church at times. But have you found something diffrent? I don’t know where you are from but have you looked into any local intentional communities? or the new monastic movement? I think you have some great insight and I’d be interested to read what you think about these ideas.
There is no perfect church. no perfect community. no perfect anything. but is that really reason to give up trying to make one better? There is no perfect mariage either, but does that mean you should just give up on the whole ‘idea’ of maraige rather than work on the one you have?
Anyways, thanks for the blog. have a great night!
Thanks to everyone for responding!
Chris: I’m discovering that being churchless in a Deep South community is very challenging, at least among those that believe “going to church” equates with “being a Christian.” But I’ve always wondered what unchurched people did on Sunday mornings while I dutifully attended the services at my “local church” twice on Sunday. Truth is, they’re spending time with their families, enjoying God’s amazing creation, relaxing on the golf course or beach, and (perhaps) having a lot more fun than the silliness that often passes for evangelical Christianity these days. I’m not yet plugged into the lives of others, since we just moved back to our home town, but I’m loving the freedom to do that when we get settled a bit more.
Joel: I love your idea!
Derek: The isolation is real. In fact, I’m hoping to write more about that. I actually attended a non-denominational group this past Sunday because my wife and I felt so lonely and isolated from other believers. Interestingly we met a couple our age who we felt an almost immediate affinity (she was reading The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard) and we ended up going to lunch and spending time together. In some respects, I had to “endure” certain aspects of our morning, but I would say it was good for networking with others who live in close proximity to us. The building is about 100 yards from our house. The great thing is that we’re not locked into any IC by membership or obligation.
Eventually we hope to gather with other believers on a somewhat regular, informal basis, but we have to find kindred spirits for that to happen. And I’m not talking about starting a house church, so we can have Bible study, worship, and the other trappings of organized religion. There is nothing in the Bible (that I’ve found) that requires us to meet for any reason other than mutual encouragement in our journey with Jesus.
Anyway, thanks again! I’m starting a new job on Monday, June 22nd, so I may not be writing as frequently as I would like.