Church Refugees: Be Doers and not just pew warmers

“There's pain in leaving. There's loss. But there's hope, too. We’re able to do things now” - Ava, church refugees

One of my main reasons for leaving church was that I knew I could not do what I was called to do in a church setting. I'm not well connected in church, I'm not willing to play politics or play games in order to have a platform, and truthfully there's no place in the current structure for a person like myself. My vision too big and my compassion too strong to stay limited in a church

I have firmly believed that in the future people will not look to churches for salvation or for movements because they will become obsolete.

Church refugees backs me up on this point.

As has been made extremely clear to us throughout the course of this research, there's a strong desire among our respondents for church, but there's no longer a NEED for church. The de churched are tenacious and resourceful drawing on their immense networks, knowledge, and training to engage in meaningful activity

The de churched people I know (including myself) believe in living out their faith and not relegating it to a church building .  For me it's not enough and is a waste of energy to sit in a church and attend pointless activities when the world is burning down around us. The Bible says to be doers of the word. That was one of the red flags for me growing up in fundamentalism. 

These folks knew how to past scriptures together to make up rules for worship service but had no clue on how to teach people how to live out their faith for the glory of God. They had made up rules for salvation but never once talked about the greatest commands which is to Love God and Love Your Neighbor as you Love yourself.