Letters From Leavers

“Like many before me, I had to quit my traditional church
experience altogether before I could stumble into a more simple and
meaningful means of relating to God. What has been surprising about
this journey is that since peacefully disassociating myself from the
church of my youth and young adulthood (leaving behind much of my own
worthless bitterness and judgment) I have discovered that I am quite
as much a part (maybe even more so) of the Church that I grew up
hearing about but never knew where to find. This Church is nothing
less than the union of Christ-centered beings who believe that people
are more important than material possessions, that time well spent is
more significant than hard-earned money, that conspicuous consumption
is a poor substitute for spiritual poverty and that the joy of
creativity conjoins us at the Siamese soul of our Creator. This
Church is the fellowship of all believers who are willing to follow
the mandates and mores, the direction and dictates of a personal
Supreme Being (often referred to as God) as He chooses to reveal
Himself one day at a time. There are no impossible laws to obey or
complicated ideas to understand, only a pure acceptance and practice
of the truths common to all world religions: love God and serve
others. The path to this relationship with God is littered with much
letting go of old ideas and showered with the blossoms and blooms of
new freedom and fresh grace. There are millions of believers
traversing this sea of faith, many of whom do not know or see it, but
who none-the-less, because of Christ, are experiencing the bon voyage.
Some of us are even daring to enjoy the ride.

“Interesting to some of my Christian friends but disturbing to
others is my belief that there are innumerable souls (Moslems and
Buddhists, Christian Scientists and Mormons, Pagans and witches,
agnostics and atheists, etc.) who are likely benefiting from the
miraculous life, atoning death, saving resurrection and bodily
ascension of Jesus Christ but who do not lay claim to the title of
‘Christian’. They are progressively being saved on the non-linear
timetable of a Higher Power and not by the clocks of the conservative
churchgoer who might be disappointed to see some of them (us) in
Heaven. These are not people who decidedly or consciously have
rejected the Name, Person or Work of Christ, though they may for any
number of reasons deny an association with a church or modern
Christianity. I am talking about people who are seeking God, as they
understand God, to the best of their ability in a form that works for
them in real life and real time. They seek a ‘version’ of God who has
either been introduced to them along the way by saints with
attractive lifestyles or who they believe has found them in the midst
of their searching and placed them on a higher plane of living. This
god, that responds to prayer, revels in worship and reveals His
true nature through contemplation of life, love and literature is
no less the same God that countless Christians claim to be theirs.
This is the Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and The End, The Great Is
and Is To Come who will one day unite all who honestly seek God under
the Name that is above all names, the King, The Lord, The Messiah.
Jesus the Christ.”

Blessings on your journey with God,

Dan Gilliam
www.dangilliam.net

The above is an excerpt of chapter 27 (of 30) from Dan’s new book,
“God Touches: Finding Faith in the Cracks and Spaces of My Life”
It is available for purchase here:
http://standardpub.com/Quick_Links/Meet%20Our%20Authors/Dan%20Gilliam.asp