Postmodern seekers understand God and are being lost to the church…

“What [Alan] Jamieson has found in his studies has surprised him. In researching his book, A Churchless Faith, he interviewed 108 leavers. Most were not marginal churchgoers who finally quit but organizational linchpins. Ninety-four percent had been church leaders -- deacons, home-group leaders, elders, Sunday school teachers -- and 32 percent had been in full-time ministry.

“…Why won't someone at least listen to the tough questions?" ‘If Christianity is about community, why am I so bruised and battered?’…”

Paul writes – Clearly I have a bias with regards this post, but today I want to pick up on some of Alan Jamieson’s research on Churchless Faith by featuring one of the pieces of writing linked below (down there on the left) under the heading – Interviews, Articles, Essays by Alan – Craig Bird, a former missionary and a free-lance writer living in San Antonio, Texas, interacts with Alan and some of Alan’s research in a great little introduction. Read it here

The book, A Churchless Faith, is available in the US, and is an important and well written book, well worth a read, whether you are someone with a “churchless faith” or a member of an existing congregation. Use the book as a reason to get together (churched & churchless), to read it together, and to use that conversation as a catalyst for some serious reflection on church!

There is much to learn, much which could reform our experiences of church and what it might mean to be congregations which resource and create space and community within which Jesus-followers can grow and mature.

“Ironically, Jamieson says, the people perhaps best equipped to help postmodern seekers understand God were being lost to the church…”

What can we learn from the wounded and frustrated believers who are leaving the church to find God?

It was great to see that yesterday Jan Bros has picked up on this essay too.

Comments

[Paul Fromont]

Interestingly reference to Alan's book appeared in the yesterday's Waikato Times - their "Your Faith" page - in a section from one Anglican Minister's sermon. I didn't find the context useful; in fact it reinforced the huge gulf there is between the assumptions made by church leaders who are "in" church in relation to those who are not "in" church.

The passage being preached on was Mat. 14:28-33. I quote, "A Baptist Pastor from Wellington, Alan Jamieson, wrote a book called "The Churchless Faith". It was about the phenomenon of people saying "Jesus yes, Church no". Forcing God's hand, going it alone like Peter tried, may perhaps be temporarily exhilarating, but it still ends up with that dreadful sinking feeling..." [end quote].

I am saddened and feel my journey and experiences demeaned by such ignorant commentary. I've never found my decision to leave a local church "exhilarating" - quite the opposite in fact!

If this leader has read the book and that's all they've gotten out of it, the future doesn't bode well in relation to some my hopes expressed in the post above.

[philjohnson]

Paul

The throwaway comment of the preacher could reflect any number of possible attitudes like (but in the absence of the original tanscript in context -- maybe the benefit of the doubt is a charitable thought???):-

1. Jamieson's book impinges too close for comfort on my reality as a church pastor; unconscious solution: boundary-maintenance to differentiate between the insider and those who have "departed". It constitutes avoidance and denial of Jamieson's research.

2. I don't need to take this seriously because my parish is bursting at the seams; my ministry is a success; so why bother listening to stories of abject "failure"? This attitude represents a slight variation on number 1. Here the buffer zone that insulates the preacher is if the congregation he has comprises a goodly number; especially if newer faces keep popping up. How much the new faces represent kingdom growth by discipleship-conversion, and how much involves member transference from dying congregations --- when the numbers bulge "who needs the naysayers"?

3. The Church Exiles cannot really be serious about maintaining faith in Christ; hit rewind button on Scripture at Hebrews 10:25; then say "see these people if they really loved the Lord they would come to church". This is a sad case of Robot from "Lost in Space": "It does not compute Will Robinson!" This attitude could be portrayed in a spoof motion picture "Clueless in Ecclesia".

And other permutations no doubt could be imagined.

As an "exile" you have found yourself by the rivers of Babylon, and now you are hearing the comforting parts of Ezekiel's visions and Isaiah's later visions of a renewed Israel that is yet to come.

If the preacher really is so dismissive of Church Exiles, as the quote could be construed that way, then it could be because he does not want to wake up and face the fact that Nebuchadnezzar's army has already pulled down the walls of Zion.

Stick with the exilic and post-exilic prophets, there's ambrosia in those Scriptures!

[Paul Fromont]

Thanks Phil. I will be more charitable...as I said in a recent article; a little bit of bitterness creeps in from time to time. Thanks for your thoughtful range of possibilities. I shall stick with the "exilic and post-exilic prophets." Peace.