People who know me know that I am always trying to connect people with a local church. It’s a connection that I know I need to have. I have no ‘guilt’ if circumstances cause me to miss a week, but I rarely let it happen. I want to have that time each week spent in corporate worship with a congregation of believers.
As a champion of local churches where I live, several years ago I identified 35 worshiping ‘groups’ of people in the two towns in our area; and have now visited 31 of those 35; several of them twice, but without maintaining a frequent connection to the one that I call my church home. Having had first-hand contact with the different groups, I can recommend the ones that I think will be a “best fit” for people who need to get back to the Sunday morning — or equivalent — habit. Some of them know me as their biggest ‘cheerleader.’
So I wasn’t ready for what hit me this weekend as I finished reading So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore.
Writers Dave Coleman and Wayne Jacobsen, writing under the collective pen name of Jake Colsen belong to that growing number of people who see church as being more than just what takes place on Sundays in buildings set aside for that purpose. (You can also add writer Frank Viola to that number, whose book Pagan complements this one well.) Of course, these people have the weight of Biblical theology on their side; the church is the people not the building, and the experience of church does not mandate that you have a set-apart building, a liturgy, clergy or even (gasp!) singing.
Many of those in the Emergent / Emerging / Missional branches of Christianity have also come to this conclusion, as have those embracing the “Ancient/Future” style of worship, as have those who have embraced the House Church movement, as have those who are simply committed to trying to “do church” as close to the way the Early Church experienced it.
I never re-read a book twice within the same 12 months, but re-reading So You Don’t… for the second time I was struck again by the fact that church is really about coming together with others who are journeying together in a growing relationship with the Father.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have no reason to suspect that my spiritual life is stagnating, but I’ve been very much aware lately that despite superficial contacts with literally hundreds of other believers in my community, despite daily dialog with a minimum half-dozen people (usually double that) on issues of faith (and an increasing number online), I simply don’t have an identifiable group of people with whom I am on that journey.
So this means that according to the criteria of the book as to what real “church” consists of, I am not necessarily part of it; even though I am physical present in a church building each week. Unless you have a group of people — or even one or two — with whom you are journeying together in your getting to know God the Father, all your love of and participation in the Sunday thing, or the building thing, or the program thing, or the service thing; all that is is somewhat less than the fullness of “church.” And maybe, just maybe, some others of you reading this would have to admit you’re in the same place also.
+ = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + =
POSTSCRIPT: This book is the most natural thing to read after experiencing The Shack and is from the same publishing company. I’ve never quite figured out why more people who’ve read Shack aren’t moving on to So You Don’t...
Read my original review of the book here.