The People Formerly Known as the Congregation

It’s funny the conversations I’ve had with several different people in the past 24 hours, as well as some stuff I’ve read online. To set the stage, we left our church home over a year ago, for reasons that are too involved to explain here, in this post. I have a good friend, who was still at that church and he would periodically tell me that we should come back, we were missed blah blah blah. It was sincere, but it’s not going to happen. That church was good for us for the time we were there and at some point, it became clear that the church was going in a different direction. Of course, it took over a year of wandering before landing where we are now, but we feel blessed to be at our new church.

Well, my friend called last night, kind of late, not too unusual and proclaimed that he was not going back to that church. As I listened to his story, it was like chapter 2 of my story, very similar. In the end, I asked if he now understood why I was never interested in returning and of course, now he does. It’s something that you really can’t understand until you live through it.

Earlier last evening I ran into a guy from that same church and they have also left that church, for kind of the same reason that we left. I ran into the pastor from that church this morning at breakfast, he was all friendly and smiling. Of course, I was too. Another friend from that church stopped by my office this morning. I hadn’t seen him for months and yet he shows up today.

Just now I saw this, written by Darryl at Dying Church, from a post by Bill Kinnon titled
The People formerly known as The Congregation.

We are people – flesh and blood – image bearers of the Creator – eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.

We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons – attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us – it just doesn’t seem to jive with yours.

Sounds familiar. He goes on to say:

We grew weary from your Edifice Complex pathologies – building projects more important than the people in your neighbourhood…or in your pews. It wasn’t God telling you to “enlarge the place of your tent” – it was your ego. And, by the way, a multi-million dollar, state of the art building is hardly a tent.

We no longer buy your call to be “fastest growing” church in wherever. That is your need. You want a bigger audience. We won’t be part of one.

Hitting close to home. He concludes in this way:

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We do not hate you. Though some of us bear the wounds you have inflicted. Many of you are our brothers and our sisters, misguided by the systems you inhabit, intoxicated by the power – yet still members of our family. (Though some are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing.)

And, as The People formerly known as The Congregation, we invite you to join us on this great adventure. To boldly go where the Spirit leads us. To marvel at what the Father is doing in the communities where He has placed us. To live the love that Jesus shows us.

I don’t know why everywhere I turn lately is like a blast from the past, but it’s interesting. We are now part of a church just a few minutes from our house and feel really blessed to be part of this church family. God is moving through the leaders and people of our new church. I pray that my old church gets what they want and I pray that the Holy Spirit will touch people, including the leadership, in a powerful new way.

Read Bill’s post, it’s powerful. The church should be a place that people can go and be ministered to, a place to serve, worship and grow. Sometimes the church becomes a place where God is forgotten and where people put their own agendas first, which can ultimately hurt many people and turn them away from church and God. My wife and I were strong enough in our faith to not lose heart and seek God in where He was leading us. Some people are not and they fall by the wayside, become casualties.

I’ve heard church leaders state that casualties will happen when you are growing a church and that makes no sense to me. It’s sad actually.

I don’t recall Jesus accepting casualties as par for the course.

So the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-19 (NET)