Give Up Going to Church

by | Mar 23, 2015

This week of Lent, my suggestion is to give up going to church.  Some of you already have.  The rest of you may be wondering why on earth I would make this suggestion.  Isn’t the whole push for congregational renewal to get people back in to church?

Jesus went to synagogue on Sabbath, “as was his custom.”  So did Paul.  So why shouldn’t we followers of Jesus, and of the teachings of Paul, go to church?

Is it that in many ways church has served its purpose?

After all, the message of Jesus has already escaped into the world.  The focus on sacrificial love, the need for community, servant leadership—all these concepts have made their way deep into the culture of the world we live in.  Even business leaders are counseled to practice servant leadership.

No, that’s not what I had in mind.

Is it that the idea of going to church is relatively new, at least in US history?  As Diana Butler Bass writes in Christianity After Religion, people didn’t really go to church much before the Civil War.  “Because of the lack of trained clergy and the long distances people sometimes had to travel to even get to a church building, parents acted as the arbiters and authorities of a faith tradition, teaching their children the bible, Christian ethics, and even liturgy in the their own homes.  Mothers and midwives often baptized infants, especially those in distress. Homes often served as ritual space, as most baptism marriages and funerals happened in the family parlor.”  It wasn’t until after the Civil War that religion restructured into the kinds of denominational and became more like big business.

No, that’s not what I had in mind either.  Although the house church, the local Bible study, and other forms of re-emergent Christian community are intriguing.

Is it that just like you don’t have to go to a store to buy what you need, since you can get almost everything online, do you really have to a church building to fill your religious or spiritual cup? Nope.  In many ways it’s true.  But that’s not what I was thinking either.

The biggest reason I am suggesting to give up going to church has to do with the meaning of the word church.  Church is drawn from the Latin ecclesia and the Greek ekklesia.  It’s where we get the words ecclesiology and ecclesiastical.

Rather than refer to a building, biblically speaking, it means a called out people of God.  Just as Jesus called Andrew and Peter, then James and John to follow him, so in a sense all followers of Jesus are called out too.

The point is, church is more about being a community of believers, than it is about the building that people may meet in.  It’s more about our way of being, than our location for meeting.

So we can’t very well go to church, when we are the church. In fact, that may be a cop out.  A way of avoiding our own personal responsibility for letting the Light shine through us, or actually practicing our faith.

Maybe that’s why there’s such an emphasis these days on getting beyond the church walls to do mission and ministry. It’s the church in action, out in in the world, that makes a difference. Not necessarily the quality of the building.

Or maybe that’s why more people report feeling closer to God in nature than in a church building.  The buildings themselves, notwithstanding the ancient churches of Europe, often aren’t inherently special.  It’s we the people—alive with the Spirit—that can be something special.

This Lent, it’s time to give up going to church.  Time to finally be church.

Reggie McNeal suggests 3 ways congregations can make this shift in his book Missional Renaissance.
1.  Shift from an Internal to an External Focus.  Look beyond organizational goals to the needs of the community around you.
2. Shift from Program Development to People Development.  Instead of focusing on delivering specific doctrinal content to people, cultivate a culture in which people can pursue their own customized spiritual journeys.
3.  Shift from Church-Based to Kingdom-Based Leadership.   Free people up from club-based activities like chairing committees that don’t make much of a difference to reaching out to the world around you.  This can be even at the simplest levels of praying for and blessing others. Or the level of abolishing hunger or homelessness in your town.
Jesus himself spent more time out and about proclaiming the Kingdom than he ever did in synagogue.  His followers were with him every step of the way.  Isn’t it time we followed suit and did the same?

Resolve to Evolve: Get Authentic!

by | Jan 8, 2014

As promised, here is the first of my top 5 or 6 tips for people of faith who are resolved to evolve this year!  Here’s tip #1:  Get Authentic.  

When I pastored churches, I knew most of the people in the  congregations I served–quite a few pretty well.  We had conversations with some level of  transparency on my part, and on theirs.  Later, it surprised me to learn that all these folks I knew didn’t really know each other!
Never mind that some of them had been going to church together for decades.
They knew of each other, and about each other.  But they didn’t really know each other.  They weren’t genuinely friends.
Now that I work with churches in a variety of ways–leading retreats, teaching workshops, and coaching leaders–I can see that my congregations were not unique.   Just because people worship together doesn’t mean they feel safe together.
That’s kinda strange, don’t you think??   We bring people together to study, worship and work.  And even change the world.  Without the kind of resilient bonds and relationships that make that do-able.  Especially when conflict rolls around.
Would things change if your “community of faith” was truly acommunity?  I mean, what if we truly knew each other–our weaknesses and our strengths?  What if we were transparent with each other?
Jesus and his disciples hung out A LOT..they traveled together, ate together, debated together, fished together, partied together, fought together, learned together, made up together.  They shared living space.  Over time, they not only knew of and about each other, they were friends.  That was a lot of time for transparency, authenticity.   Tell me that didn’t have something to do with why they were so effective later on after Jesus died!
I listened to an interview recently about people who are spiritual but not religious.  It pointed to another aspect of authenticity that religious people can learn from.  It turns out those who identify as spiritual want, even more than those who are religious, to pose and savor good questions, to take on the status quo, and to freely express themselves in the process–without having to conform to pre-set norms.  It’s in this process that they come alive, and experience the Divine.
My own belief, and my experience, is that as we are more truly ourselves–without trying to look good, follow the rules, or go along to get  along–that God becomes most real.  These epiphanies often happen in conversation with others.
So, for those who resolve to evolve in, here’s my suggestion: create the space and the permission where people can be authentically themselves.   I’m thinking something like youth group for adults! 
Why does Youth Group have the potential to be so transformative?  And so hard?  There’s no set agenda!  You never know what students might bring up, or what personal problem or societal issue will become the topic of discussion.  You never know who is going to cry.  Nor who will shine.  And how the group will bond, and come to experience God.  But one thing you can count on:  they will tell the truth, as they see it.
What if we set up those sorts of experiences for adults as well as youth?  Experiences which let us truly get to know each other:  the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Here’s what I say:  Let go of the pre-set agendas, and set the stage for transparency, tears, revelations, honesty.   Kinda like Jesus did.
In his book Missional Renaissance, Reggie McNeal writes that for churches looking to go missional, people development must take priority over program development. Authenticity is a must for people development.
This year, as you resolve to evolve, resolve to get to know each other–at a whole new level.  And do it more than just once a year.  Plan a series of experiences that reward play, self-revelation, and self-awareness.  In a word:  authenticity. By all means, do it intergenerationally, whenever possible.
Some ideas:

  • Plan a retreat together.
  • Go out to dinner together or have potlucks.
  • Hike or ski together.
  • Share your spiritual journeys.
  • Do a project that groups or pairs people up and requires them to get to know each other.

If you’re looking for a retreat that builds a sense of the common good, and helps people truly get to know themselves and each other, click here to check out For the Common Good!
By the way, thanks to all those who answered last week’s fun question about Mr. Banks.  We had a tie for the free book:  congrats to winners GW Bill Warren and Deb Polanski!
Stay tuned for next week’s tip!