Part three of Rev. Sandlin's sabbatical series, "Church No More," about stepping away from church.
Photo used under Creative Commons from michael_swan.
I have a confession. (That's rich, right? A minister confessing.) I have a hard time telling people I'm a minister. Yes, really. I actually tend to handle it this way:
Person: "So, what do you do for a living?"
Me: "I'm a minister ... (appropriate pause) ... but not the kind you just pictured in your head."
Sad. I know. Honestly though, it's worse than that. I'm even very resistant to calling myself a "Christian." And I'm not even close to the only Christian who feels that way! It's so bad that I have this very conversation with people all the time. There seems to be some kind of "Believer-like-me Radar" which tells people it's safe to talk to me about not liking the"C" word: Christianity.
You'd be amazed at how many people resist calling themselves Christian -- or maybe you wouldn't. Maybe you are one of us. The "C" word just isn't what it used to be.
A number of researchers over the last few years (most notably David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, who published their results in "unChristian") have found that the word "Christianity" has many more negative connotations than positive ones, at least in the minds of the general public. Want to try a few of them on for size? Hypocritical. Irrelevant. Anti-homosexual. Judgmental. OK, that's enough. I'm getting depressed.
I've been on sabbatical from ministry for a little over a month now. I decided from the very beginning that during the three months I'm on sabbatical, I will not go to church. I've never done that for more than a couple of Sundays in my whole life. Ever. And it worried me.
I'm finding that not only did I not need to be worried, but I don't actually miss church much.
Don't get me wrong, I really miss the people (the actual church) but I simply don't miss what Church has become. I don't miss the dogma. I don't miss the hypocrisy. I don't miss the judgment. I don't miss all of the stuff that Jesus didn't like about orginized religion during his day and age. Go figure.
I'm left with this thought: "How am I supposed to follow Jesus when the place I'm told I'm supposed to do it invests so much energy in the stuff that Jesus didn't like about orginized religion during his day and age?" Isn't that counterproductive? It's no wonder so many people are walking away from church, never looking back and, in doing so, finding happier lives. The "C" word just isn't what it used to be.
Church has become about following the Church and all of those who hold power in it (both formal and informal power). Silly me, I thought we were supposed to be following Jesus. The reality is, when the rest of the world can rightfully look at us and call us hypocritical, judgmental and irrelevant, and say that we are much more defined by what we are against rather than what we are for -- well, we are not doing a very good job of following Jesus. We are not being very good Christians.
My time away from the Church has helped me see more clearly that the Church is increasingly full of Churchians rather than Christians. We've become so tied up in the power structures and dogma of the organization that we've lost focus on the "Christ" in Christian. We put polity before people and trade love for law. We follow the Church not Christ.
If you stop and think about it, with all of that in mind, it makes a lot sense that people are leaving churches to find their spirituality. What I still need to ponder on this journey is, can the Church change? What would that look like? Would it make any difference at this point? How can we honor and respct those who have left the Church (for many valid reasons) and be in ministry with them?
Can we make the "C" word mean what it used to mean? I sure hope so.
The journey continues.
This article was originally published on The God Article.
Follow Mark Sandlin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/marksandlin
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The Common practice where I live is to say "I'm not a Christian, I'm a believer" but the Bible says (James 2:19) " The Devil also believes and trembles!" We are called Christian because we follow Christ the disciples were called Christians (Acts 11:26) and the Bible tells us that we should not be ashamed of what we may go through because we are Christians but to Glorify God because of it.(1 Peter 4:16)
What, have we denied Christ? maybe like Peter we need to be reminded of his words (Matthew 10:33)
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Come on people stop associating your self with the world and the devil and return to your first love which is Christ.
Another great article. I even read all 6 pages of comments that were posted when I finished reading and agreed with most of them. You mentioned that this will be posted on Huff Post tomorrow, I noticed a typo in the 6th paragraph and, if you have time, maybe you or an editor can correct it before it is released. Orginized should be organized. Enjoy your time off and I will continue to enjoy reading your articles. Take care.
When I first saw the headline I thought it was about the Christians and their treatment of women.