Church Refugees: Time for Soul Searching.

Being Churched to Death and Time for Soul searching

“I guess the  church just sort of churched the church out of me”

On one of the message boards I used to  frequent one of the posters said he was so tired of church because he felt he had been “churched to death.”

That's how I feel. I'm tired and burnt out on it and as the book says I struggled but I see leaving church as the only way to save my faith. People like to think it was one incident that led people away from church but it is a cumulative effect over time.  Those who have been heavy into church and walk away do so reluctantly but after a time of soul searching.

This is my time for soul searching and that is why I've  decided to sit out 2016.  Maybe I will go back next year but right now I know I need this break from church because it’s just so frustrating.

According to the authors of Church Refugees, the people they interviewed remarked time and time again they worked diligently for reform within the church but felt the church was exclusively focused on its own survival and resistant to change.

The church defectors went on to say that staying in church would have killed their faith altogether.  The authors decided to call the people refugees because refugees would rather not leave. They try and wait it out to see if conditions improve and when they don't, it's time to leave.

People who left view the church as inwardly focused and consumed by the politics of its own survival. They don't see the church as being concerned with their day to day life. They conclude that church is ill equipped to support the flourishing life they hope for

This sums it up for me. I saw church as unwilling to change and stuck on the status quo and I did not see my calling fitting in with their agenda

Church is losing the best and brightest people. This book and Quitting church both  point out that the people that leave are “doers”’ I continue to believe that this is because the doers are the ones who want to get things done. It has been my experience that many in church leadership may want change but they don't want to get it done if it means that they have to change.

I asked the question a few weeks ago if they way we do church is the problem?  In Church Refugees a man named Ethan shared his story and he said this:

I think the church in America is an inherently flawed structure that compels people to make poor decisions. You're basically judged on how well you can preach and the numbers you bring in

I would agree with this assessment.  A church would rather have a guy that is the equivalent of Donald Trump if he packs the house over a guy who is theologically sound and lives out his faith. 

I have not attended a church pastored by a Donald Trump type in many years but I remember someone behind us in church once saying, "That's not what the Bible says!" People didn't care if it was right as long as you told them what they wanted to hear.

I once had a friend who quit as a preacher tell me that he left church after reading the Bible cover to cover about 3x and realized he wasn't leading people to a God experience at all. He read himself right on out of organized religion. I hate to say it but many of the people I know who left church were people who studied the Bible and tried very hard to apply it to their lives. They grew frustrated as they saw more and more being taken out of context.

I would go further to add that God’s presence is shunned for preservation of the status quo.  We keep talking about how there is no power and no anointing in these churches and I truly believe it’s because we’ve decided God’s presence is secondary over our bigger and better ideas.

You cannot even voice these sentiments without being shouted down as a heretic.