Community?

Following up on my last post, Thoughts of a Church Leaver. I find Alan Jamieson's two articles in Reality magazine very helpful. Read A Churchless Faith and In search of Turangawaewae and then come on back.

In the first article, Jamieson describes several categories of church-leavers (based on sociological research), and in the second he describes the groups that such church-leavers have often formed to replace the faith-communities they've left behind. I'm fully aware that these sociological categories are not absolute, as if every church-leaver must fall into one of these boxes, but I did find them helpful. I myself can relate to much in the "Reflective Exiles" category (but not all).

Bottom line, though, is that church-leavers do not prefer loner-status. They do desire to be part of a faith community, but for whatever reason (there are many) the church as they have known it no longer works for them.

I just mentioned the c-word: community. I kind of dislike that word, it seems so vague and trendy. In what is certainly a commentary on our times, it seems to have replaced the equally malleable word, family, as the label of choice to describe the church. And yet, for all our self-conscious striving after community, how little of it there really is.

I can honestly say that in nearly twenty years of steady church attendance (two churches) I have only experienced it for a very brief time. Solid relationships, which are surely the building blocks of community, have been quite rare. This may be because I'm a hard person to get along with, or it may be because people are just too busy, but my point is that "community" in the church is as much a will-o-the-wisp as it is in the world.

But I've not given up. I have this notion that a group a people who truly know and love one another, meeting in one another's homes, singing and praying together, is a real possibility.

More on all this in a future post.

Jamieson, btw, blogs at Prodigal Kiwi.

Thoughts of a Church Leaver

So it's simply a beautiful morning here in Maine. Cool, breezy, sunny. My honey and I are going for a bike ride this morning . . . on our new bikes! This is going to be fun.

I got a kick out of this video the other day, but then read the conversation in response to it at Pastoralia and at Bill Kinnon. What to make of the fact that the video was produced by a church that is, apparently, much like the one being satirized? Of course in the culture these days, when cool people satirize their own coolness, they grow only more cool! Perhaps that old curmudgeon, Qoheleth, was right. Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.

Having left a church last year I have come to realize I'm not going to land in a new church any time soon (thus, the bike ride on a Sunday morning). Not that I'm ruling it out, only that I'm not out there "shopping" for one. I think in the end I might settle for occasional attendance at one of the handful of churches in walking distance from my house.

I'm thinking about this sort of thing after reading a series of articles on the subject of "church leavers." It started with Len Hjalmarson's post at Next Reformation. Too much of the conversation about church leavers comes from church leaders who mis-characterize these people as, inevitably, selfishly flitting from church to church, unable to commit or submit, consumeristic, etc. I bought into that for a while. It is a helpful and comforting myth. I now believe that the selfish ones are those who continue to put forward that egregious straw man.

Anyway, Len's article is much better than all that. Am I a Reflective Exile, a Transitional Explorer, or perhaps an Integrated Wayfinder? I don't know. I know I do want company on this path, and as Len points out rather brilliantly, "transitions require liminal space." Anyway, I'm finding Len's meditation very helpful, and I'm grateful for his links to the work of Alan Jamieson (here and here).

So anyway, all these links above are to very thoughtful and nuanced articles concerning the matter of "church-leavers." Me, I'm clearly in one of those liminal spaces that Len talks about. As I said, I'll probably wind up occasionally attending one of the handful of churches within walking distance of my house, but what I do desire, of course, is what I might call the understanding companionship of a few fellow-wayfinders. I have no desire to "do faith" in isolation, but I'm done with the "tyranny of they."

I'll end with a snip from Len's post:

God may call you out of your faith community. Or, you may find yourself unwillingly on the outside. It will be a tough journey. Keep your eyes on Jesus. I know – the challenge is for some that this journey begins without conversation partners. But if you are reading this, then already you are gaining a broader perspective.

As God’s people in exile we face many daunting challenges in our time. Times of Reformation are always confusing and dangerous. Much that we thought could not be shaken is now being shaken. The rate of people leaving churches in North America is on the increase. The diaspora is hard on everyone – people, leaders, communities.

Now, let's go riding!