THOUGHTS ON LEAVING THE CHURCH

In reviewing an old blog, I came across a comment I made that startled me:

"I feel like the only way to be a missional follower of Christ would be to leave the church as I know it!"

Did I really write that?

It was something I wrote on the blank page at the end of a book I had read [which has been a custom of mine for years]. Clearly the book - which I have since given away - addressed the issue of getting outside of our buildings to influence the world toward Christ and His Kingdom principles.

This has been the theme of many books written in the 21st century. Creativity and innovation are not exactly premium resources in most established churches. Too often these qualities are expressed - not by generative thinking and deliberation - but by copying what leading churches with highly recognizable pastors do. The problem becomes noticeable when the smaller church doesn't have the resources or recognition that the larger churches have!

In his 2005 book, REVOLUTION, pollster and church clinician, George Barna, gave us a wake-up call announcing that already - by that time - massive numbers of believers had vacated the church.

He was not decrying their departure. Rather, he was trying to help the established church realize that there is a growing group of deeply committed followers of Christ, many of whom simply have chosen not to affiliate themselves any longer with the organized church.

He writes:

"The United States is home to an increasing number of Revolutionaries. These people are devout followers of Jesus Christ who are serious about their faith, who are constantly worshipping and interacting with God, and whose lives are centered on their belief in Christ. Some of them are aligned with a congregational church, but many of them are not. The key to understanding Revolutionaries is not what church they attend [or IF they attend*]. Instead it's their complete dedication to being thoroughly Christian by viewing every moment of life through a spiritual lens and making every decision in light of biblical principles. These are individuals who are determined to glorify God daily through every thought, word and deed in their lives." [p.8]

* my addition

Not many will confirm my thought of leaving the Church in order to actually BE the Church. But - in reality, many [if not most] churches fail to mobilize their people toward the mission of Christ to "seek and to save the lost."

One of our Free Methodist bishops taught - well into the 21st century and based on actual church statistics - that it was taking [at least in our denomination] 85 Christians to bring one person to Christ per year! How can anyone miss the pathetic nature of this stat?

The evidence is well known that within seven years of joining a church, a person will have replaced almost all of their lost friends and co-workers with Christian friends from church. How can we impact lost and hurting people if we only associate with Christian people?

We have to admit that there is an argument for leaving the church [as we know it] with the hope of being a greater influence for Christ by venturing out and making friends with sinners.  According to Barna, we’re already realizing this reality!

If Jesus is repeatedly accused of being a friend of sinners, isn’t that something we should give greater consideration to? It has to do with letting our light shine in a dark place. How bright can our light be when we’re shining in the midst of a bunch of other lights? Isn’t it obvious that our light will shine best in a darkened environment!

I’ve served as a pastor for over forty years. Transitioning a church from ‘plateaued’ to ‘growing’ is a phenomenally hard task that takes time, focus and determination!

Just maintaining a plateaued church takes almost no energy or creativity at all! It would be like navigating in a self-driving car!

But having been a part of seeing three churches make that transition, I can report that the end result is excitement, joy, peace and a genuine anticipation for worship times!  This is a church where the people will authentically say with David: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the House of the Lord!’” [Psalm 122:1].

In these churches, anticipation is high, joy is common, love is expressed, concessions are made willingly and Kingdom growth is front-and-center! To be frank, in this kind of church, no one gets to have it all ‘their way’. Everyone lives with some measure of discontent with the goal of maintaining unity and preserving the priorities of Christ! 

At one of these churches, we lighted a large candle on Sundays when someone had made a decision for Christ as a result of the influence of one of our members. When people entered our foyer-door, many would slip to the back of the sanctuary to see if the candle was lighted! That’s ANTICIPATION AND EXPECTATION!

But many pastors today aren’t knowledgeable about how to direct and initiate this kind of transition. Perhaps they lack the patience and courage required to address the stagnancy of the church and point in the direction of hope and change? Wisdom would seem to send them to a mentor who has had proven experience in bringing about this kind of transformation? But I don't know of any cases where this kind of pursuit is happening.

Without this kind of transformational change in the way we do church, it is likely that more and more will – like me – wonder if it might be better to just leave the church – as I know it – and strike out as one of Barna’s ‘revolutionaries’.