Comments on: A Leaver Myself?

By: Creative Apathy

Creative Apathy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

to begin the portion of it’s life that takes place outside of the womb. You can read more about all that here at Mariah’s baby blog. I no longer work at New Life as of last May and have been to church twice since then. I decided to submit a post atLetters From Leaversto share some of my thoughts since leaving the church. I would love it if you read it and shared any thoughts you had. I went to a couple cool shows in the last few months as well. Mariah and I saw the

By: underthegrace

underthegrace — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:16:54 +0000

The difficulty with being one of the leavers is that you’re left without that precious fellowship. I longed for spontaneous, loving communion with the Father and his kids but now that I’m out of the youth ministry circle it’s a lot different. I have a story perhaps somewhat similar to yours… 12 years in youth ministry, worship leader, sick of the show.

I unplugged to go back to school and get a masters degree. Its been good but there are very few (if any?) passionate people outside the church walls in our area. If you’re going to see growth you’ve gotta drink the Sunday A.M. Cool-Aid. So it seems.

Thanks for the thoughts. Peace.

Jeff

By: tim

tim — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:08:44 +0000

Jeff,

Your image of drinking the “Sunday A.M. Cool-Aid” made me laugh. As I wrote out my thoughts for the letter I posted I wondered if there was a way to experience everything I am missing out on with church and bypass the stuff I could do without. I realize how consumeristic and selfish that sounds but it is where I am at nonetheless.

Thanks for your comments.

Tim

By: Ravi Philemon

Ravi Philemon — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:21:57 +0000

“Drinking the Kool-Aid” usually refers to blindly following of a line of (indefensible) arguments without thinking them through. They refuse any critical thought and stick tenaciously to an argument regardless of any evidence to the contrary.

So, you still wanna drink Kool-aid? It is so easy to develop the ?I am the only one Lord!” syndrome. There are many others like you. Check us out at http://lifeblog.co.nr/

By: rosacola

rosacola — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:44:31 +0000

Well three more months and it will have been a year since my first post on this site.
(http://lettersfromleavers.com/blog/2007/05/09/leaving-worcc-work/)

…So, where am I at after all this time?

I have found my Heart. I have found that loving those in my life like God loves them, whether they believe in God or not, IS community, at least some form of it. That’s what Jesus did anyway, lived His life around those who didn’t know who He truly was, loving them before they loved Him.

I do have a few close ‘Allies’ that I share life with, as we journey towards and with God.

There are others in my life that I have been humbly used by God to restore their hearts to Him. There are others in my life, that do not know God (yet), but they do know I Love God, and I love them, whether they do or not.

I am sure there is a lot more for me to learn, what it is we, or I, am supposed to do while we journey down this road with God, on this ball of dirt, waiting for the new heaven and dirt ball. I do know that if I simply love God and live Life, I can’t go wrong.

Rocco

Here are some interesting resources I have found in the past year…
http://www.revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=31
http://www.thegodjourney.com/podcast.html

The following ministry has had the greatest impact on me, opening my eyes to who I am in God’s eyes.
http://www.ransomedheart.com/

By: suppresst

suppresst — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:59:07 +0000

Tim’s letter is revealing. It demonstrates that being young (twenty-something), computer literate, “connected” and having an understanding of a problem does not translate into a solution. I am fifty, and long before all the psycho-babel of the world-wide web existed, God led me on a solitary journey away, not only from the box of institutional relgion, but away from the box of modern American culture. I can attest that it was one HARD journey, and excruciatingly lonely. In the end, it was the loneliness the broke me.

Now according to what I understand about Tim, he is married, attends seminary - where he has contact with lot’s of other believers - and manages a website where he has contact with people all over the world; yet he still flounders as regards what his next step should be, outside the box of organized religion. Ain’t no wiz kid going to solve this problem - this isn’t politics, or computers, or physics; it’s a whole ‘nother canary.

As for me, I’m fed up with organized with religion, but so far everywhere I look (on the web at sites that treat the subject) I read a lot of complaining, but precious few solutions are put forward. Solutions are going to come through humility and prayer. Maybe God has started an exodus from the church at this time in history because of the interconnect possiblities of the web, but the glass screen of computer monitor has it’s limitations. To cite Tim, notice he has a lot of the social contacts but still feels adrift outside of the institution. I had NONE of Tim’s advantages. What’s more, Christ tends to call the lonely and the disposessed. I just read about a young Jew who is struggling mightily with the alienation from all his friends and family over converting to Christianty. We need to be able to offer a young man like that more than a website.

It’s time people complaining about institutional Christianity start putting foward ideas in terms of solutions, and less in terms of complaints (I am not saying Tim’s letter is complaining, I’m saying the overall thrust of the Post-Congregational Movements is complaining.