Recent Conversation

The following is is a compiled exerpt of a few emails I wrote to a friend who did not know we had been outside of the traditional "church attendance" for some time. I thought it covered a lot of my current thoughts of the topic, so I edited it and placed it here on my blog:

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We stopped doing the "attend church" thing about two and a half years ago.

I've come to see that we ARE the church, and we get together with other believers we know and anyone else that God brings our way rather than be a part of some organization or meeting.

We did not leave the attendance of the religious institution because of any "hurt" that they did to us (I just say that up front because everyone seems to assume that is the reason up front)... we left the attendance of the meetings because they were becoming lifeless rituals to us. They felt man-made. we could not find Him there. They were simply duties and obligations of man that no longer brought us closer to God or to other people. We started to feel like we were starving to death spiritually there. It was all about programs and presentation, and meeting for meetings sake. and not just there. We visited other meetings, when we were visiting friends we were invited to "go to church" with them. We even tried out a "home church" for a few months. But you know, religion is deeper than what we have learned from the institutions. I think that it is an itch that mankind tries to scratch with duty, programs and rituals... when the only real satisfaction is knowing the man Christ Jesus.

And quite honestly, after 10 years of being at the church that we were a part of, few people there knew us deep enough to know the inside of out home or for us to know their homes. Not to mention that after the leadership of the church (including me) tried to teach people that Jesus is the head of the church, everyone still thought that the pastor was the head of the church, and why not? that is what we taught in our actions but not in our words! Everyone assumed that the "church" is a tangible man made local organization rather than a spiritual kingdom built by Jesus!

take a look at John 3:8... what does that mean? (what Jesus said ot Nicodemus)... I think I have seen something there that Jesus was trying to explain about the church He would build.

We now live AS the church and go and do what and whom God places in our path. I think that raising my family to live AS the church, going through life with a perspective of walking with Jesus will have a more profound effect than bringing them up in a religious atmosphere. I don't discount the effect that believers had on me when I grew up (inside the walls of an institution), but I was drawn to Him before I ever purposely set foot in a church, and quite honestly I never fit in with the rest of the "youth group". In fact I found most of them to be surface Christians when I was growing up. In only a small handful of people did I ever have a deeper relationship and one where we saw God working in each other. I recall all the programs I got involved in (from the Jail ministry to the youth groups to even becoming an 'elder/deacon' at the church), many of those were good experiences and I even saw God move in them and He did use them, but I think I was slowly being eaten up by the religious ("I'll do my duty") thing.

I was on the road to becoming a pharisee, but I think God had touched me enough early-on that I, like Nicodemus was a frustrated pharisee. I saw the problems in the religious things, but didn't know any other way.

So I had to, like Nicodemus, go to Jesus and ask questions, and get answers that I could not understand from within my religious environment.

You mentioned that relationships outside of the church are harder because you don't see them every week. Well, quite honestly, seeing people every week at a "service" is not really anything that makes getting to know them easier. Everyone wears a mask there. I have had deeper spiritual discussions and fellowship with people I have met outside of the church because the people I talk to are living real life around me and we can get to know each other in a real way.

Not to say that God does not work through other means, but I just know that God has me on a journey to seek Him out more deeply, with everything else that is familiar stripped away, and it is not found in any established church organization (right now anyway). Who knows... some day He may call me back into that realm for His reasons, but for now I am enjoying re-discovering Him in everyday life.


I would not say that my home has become my "church". I think I would say my definition of "church" has expanded beyond the traditional concept. We are not trying to "do church" in our home, or anywhere. I think that even house church groups can simply be miniature versions of the thing they thought they were getting away from by meeting in a home. It has little to do with meeting in a home, or a building, or up a tree for that matter... (now that I gotta see!).

I'm sure you know that, as you said there are people in every situation, in and out of "local churches" that are seeking a deeper walk with Jesus, and I think that is awesome.

So, I don't think that it makes the experiences and the good things that come from people in organizational congregations or from loose knit home gatherings invalid. I think God is working in all of them. ALL. and ALL those who are His. that IS the church.

I guess the concept of a "local church" as defined in todays language is what I have dropped. I see the church as something that Jesus alone is building and shaping, and it is not the shape of the visible groups, gatherings, organizations and buildings that we often think of. His church is like the wind that He equated us to when He spoke to Nicodemus... It is the invisible kingdom that is under His leadership and moves things although it is unseen... like the wind.

I also totally agree with you that God uses people around us (not just the words in the Bible) to communicate His desires, His love and His comfort to us... maybe His love and comfort even more often than his desires -- for he calls us friends, and brothers, not slaves.