Leaving Church? Why?

Two blog posts about why people are leaving church have turned up this week, and it's worth noting them here as part of an ongoing conversation about the question: Why are people leaving the church (in 'droves' as one of these writer's notes). 

The first blogger is Joshua Graves - he's the preaching and teaching minister for the Otter Creek Church in Nashville, Tennessee.  One of his points is: Church and community are very difficult. Church is a great idea until people get involved. Bonhoeffer consistently warns us in his various writings that we destroy community when we try and create it. Meaning–community, in and of itself, cannot be the goal. Rather, community is the space in which we communally seek to experience the resurrected Jesus. That being said, anyone who’s been a part of a church community knows that relationships will suffer, endure disappointment because this is true in any community...

He has more to say on the topic. but the following paragraph perhaps sums it up: I think the real cause of disillusionment with church is self-disappointment. Pain birthed anger, now solidified in cynicism and apathy (funny how those two always go together). Frustration with “the church” is first about frustration with self. We tend to, in the wisdom of Donald Miller, judge others based on actions while judging ourselves based upon our intent. We are harder on “the church” so we can be “easier” on ourselves. This is why some Christians literally demand more from their church than they do from their own family, their own personal lives (money, time, etc.).

The whole post is called Leaving Church?

The other post is from Bradley Wright, whom I've mentioned on several occasions on this blog.   In a post called, Why do Christians leave the faith? the fundamental importance of apologetics.  Wright begins his post by writing: Several colleagues and I recently finished a study of why Christians leave the faith, and we were surprised at what made a difference as well what didn’t seem to matter. 

The post begins in outlining the sociological aspects of their study (and this post is the first of several that will be appearing) but it soon gets onto looking at some of the reasons people bring forward for why they left the church.   For Wright, many of them hinge on a lack of understanding of apologetics, which of course basically goes back to a lack of understanding of the Bible and God Himself. 

Singing Together

Robert Bayley, whom I heard preach a couple of times at the Pastors' Conference in East Taieri a few months ago, puts this quote in an article called Made in God's Image that appeared in Reformed Worship:

'Bonhoeffer reflects in Life Together, "It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song."'

This is an interesting way of thinking about communal worship, which can often be a time of frustration or boredom or difficulty (for those who struggle with singing publicly). Even though we can only sing with our own voice, that voice becomes part of a mighty song to God.

There have been times I've experienced in worship when I've had a real sense of what it will be like when all the God-believing people from all ages are joined together in an unthinkable song before God. Worship, communal worship, can be a foretaste of heaven.

Bonhoeffer & Slagle

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes ... and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
German pastor and philosopher (1906-1945) imprisoned and executed for his attempt to overthrow Adolf Hitler.

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[God speaks]; And what about your tantrums? I never took them seriously. They certainly never offended Me. As is often the case with My children,, the frustration expressed by your lips had nothing to do with the deeper faith of your heart, expressed by your will. When you told Me you were trusting Me and then willed to walk on with Me, I took you at your word. I admit, you did askyour fair share of hard questions. But consdier My servant Job. Did he not do the same/ my assessment is this: in all your railing and falailing you never sinned, though We both know your patience did wear thin at times. Dangerously thin. But after, all you were being stretched to your very limits, were you not? I think so.

From, From the Father's Heart, by Charles Slagle, pg 47.