Hello everyone!

[WadeParticipant]

Hello everyone!

I’ve come to this site from the recommendation of a friend at church who has read The Naked Pastor for some years. He’s an advocate of the Emerging Church and of churches in general being more progressive. But we’re both currently in a church that is mildly evangelical, solidly contemporary and in the middle of a firmly white, moderately well-off and largely protestant area.

I’ve been a church-goer myself for years – since I was born, basically. Had a reasonably sheltered upbringing, including my Christianity. Always struggled with the “churchianity” of a church group, but never understood that that was what it was. It took a while for me to realize that there was an essentially non-Christian world “out there” that didn’t really believe in the same very conservative things I thought I did.

Then I had a marriage breakdown.

By this time, I’d discovered the works of John Eldredge and Steve Biddulph. And with the help of counselling that started with marriage counselling, then turned into separation counselling and finally life counselling, I learnt a lot about myself and about how I learnt about myself. Along the way I did the New Warrior Training that the Mankind Project does and found a remarkable new set of friends in a writers’ group. The latter showed me what unjudgemental friendship was like. The former showed me how to begin to find spirituality and sacredness that didn’t depend on what a church told me.

I’ve started looking at Jesus and Scripture and the history of both the church and of Israel from outside the Bible and from outside the church. And what I’ve begun to find is a spirituality that is more honest than what I find the church teaches. And oddly more real and more connected with the world.

I don’t really want to leave my church. I still have friends there and I still enjoy that. But I can’t subscribe to the insulated beliefs anymore.

Wade.

 

[David HaywardKeymaster]

Hey Wade. Thanks so much for your story. You aren’t the only one in this community who still is a part of a local church. So even though you’re in mixed company, we can always find someone else on the same page.

Interesting… I have always been in the church until a couple of years ago. I still feel spiritually homeless at times.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing your story Wade. You are experiencing exactly what many of us are and/or have experienced – the quandary of what to do when you still love your church but you no longer subscribe to the beliefs the church teaches.  You are at definitely at a difficult crossroad in your life. Unfortunately its one that has no easy answers, but I hope it helps to know there are people in this community who feel your pain and who understand what you are going through. Sorry I don’t have any answers, but I do understand the agonizing frustrating dilemma all too well.

A lot of us (including myself) ended up leaving the institutional church, but like David said, there are also people here who still attend church.  I hope some of them will weigh in on your post and share their experiences and ideas.  No matter where people end up in their journey, everyone is always welcome, accepted and respected in this community which is beyond awesome!!! Glad you are here Wade.

[moxierocksParticipant]

Welcome, Wade!

[WadeParticipant]

A difficult crossroads. Yes, that’s the term.

 

I had a very interesting time at the local Mind Body Spirit festival a few months ago, including a professional Tarot reading. It was at that that I heard a second confirmation that exploring the spiritual world outside of the church was The Right Thing To Do (the first was a flash of inspiration in my Bible Study).  This is why I’ve begun reading up on Paganism and Wicca and how they intersected with Christianity down through history. There is so much there that the church should be teaching about what it does. And isn’t.

I find myself wanting to move back to a more simpler Jesus, from before the church went patriarchal. I know this is a tough road. Amnongst other things it means questioning Paul’s teaching and even, to some extent, the provenance of the Gospels.

Wade.

 

[starfielderParticipant]

Hi Wade,

Welcome! I still sneak in the back of church near where we live. I like liturgy. But, like you I have found that there is so much out here and so much more freedom than I previously thought. Here’s my intro: http://www.thelastingsupper.com/topic/starfielder-what-i-know-now/

peace

[MxMagpieParticipant]

Hi Wade. I’m the same in that I want to go back to Jesus and abandon these patriarchal, institutionalized trappings.

I hope this site helps you along your way

[WadeParticipant]

Thanks everyone… I must have something in my eye…

 

 

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