Losin' My Religion...

It is becoming more and more clear to me that there are SO many Christians in America who have simply walked away from the institutional church. For good reason. The traditional church itself might try to paint them as "uncommitted" or "anti-social" but this is not, to my knowledge, the case at all. In fact, most of them are some of the most dedicated Jesus followers I've ever known.

A friend who is journeying down this path recently pointed me to Jake Colsen's web site in which is contained his book, So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore?

The book has a good quantity of spiritual zingers but this is one of my favorites from Chapter 3. In this passage, the associate pastor of a church, Jake, is discussing knowing God with his new-found friend, John:

"How could it be? We teach the kids about God and his Word, and how to be good Christians?" My voice faded out as it dawned on me that learning about God and what it means to be a good Christian was not the same as learning to walk with him.

"What I want you to see is that laced through the wonderful things you have here is a system of religious obligation that distorts it all. Until you see that, you’ll never know what it means to walk with Father."

"Why’s that?"

"He’s done too much to free you from it to reward it. Certainly everything else in your life might, but not relationship with him. It’s not based on what we do, but what he’s done."

As I read this book, my eyes are even farther opened to what church as we know it does to people. It detracts and distracts people from focusing on relationship with Christ and replaces that love with "little gold stars for Jesus."

It saddens me to think about all the many wonderful, God-loving people who simply cannot live in community in the body of Christ as they were MEANT to because they hold a position of "authority" in the church. They are not free to be rebuked or corrected by those around them, those "under" them. They are not free to be open and honest about their hurts, their struggles, their dysfunction. They are not free to simply be who God made them to be because they are too busy trying to fulfill a role placed on them by someone else.

I think about Jeff Little and Derrick Wilson in this way. I think about how hard it must be (and how frustrating and draining) to live the Christian life that way. My family and I have the blessed and wonderful opportunity to live free. We are living free from the expectations of others. We are living free from the image-conscious, performance-oriented culture that still traps so many at Milestone. We live free from having to DO anything for Jesus in order to get our little gold stars or in order to "lead God's people" to where Jesus wants them to go.

Worse yet, not only are these pastors caught in this environment, they're forced to ensnare others in it to ensure the survival of their species. Of their programs. Of their building. Of their "vision."

Every day of my life, I get up, look around, and thank God for freedom. It is, after all, what He died to give us. Blessed be the person who can find their way clear to walk in it!