Finding Church
Do you love church, but sometimes feel that the way church is “done” could be different?
You are not alone.
The contributors to Finding Church feel the same way, and have written their stories to tell of their own experience, and encourage you to find the way God is leading you to be the church in your town and community.
Certain parts of church can change, and the church will still be The Church. Those who recognize this and seek to change the church generally fall into three categories:
Leaving Church
Some of these pioneers in changing the church find that the best way to function as the Body of Christ is to leave the institutional church behind, and live and love like Jesus with other people in their community and their neighborhood. They have not “left the church” but have “left the building” so they can be the church.
Switching Church
Then there are those who realize that the church they current attend will never make the changes necessary to properly follow Jesus into the world, and so rather than stay and fight, they choose to follow Jesus to another congregation in town. They switch churches. These people often get condemned as “church hoppers” but their stories actually show the opposite. They are not switching church because they got bored or wanted to next, new thing. They are trying to live for Jesus and be the church through another fellowship of believers in town. This is often a difficult, but faith-filled move.
Reforming Church
Finally, there are those who experience pain and hardship in church, and often feel like throwing in the towel, but choose to stick it out with their current fellowship of believers to help encourage and change their church from the inside. They recognize that the church is not perfect (and never will be), but that this does not mean the church can stay as it is. If we are not changing and reforming, we are dead.
The book Finding Church
Order it today in Paperback or for your Kindle.
Other Posts about Finding Church
Some of the contributors have written posts about this book as well. Below are a few that I am aware of. Go congratulate them on getting published, and tell them you are excited to read what they wrote for this book.
- Brian Swan – Finding Church Publishes Dec 1
- Will Rochow – Have You Ever Questioned Church?
- Genevieve Thul – A Puddle in a Pew
- Mike Donahoe – Finding Church
- Markus Watson – Three Reasons I’m Stoked About the New Book Finding Church
- Tara Pohlkotte – Leaving Church – In Communion with the Pines
- Eric Hatfield – I’m a Published Author!
- Kris Camealy – Finding Church
- Mary C. M. Phillips – Finding Church is Now in Print!
- Brian Swan – Free Copy of Finding Church
- Sonny Lemmons – I Call Pulpit: Leadershift
- Alan Knox – Finding Church – A New Book with 36 Authors
- Markus Watson – When People Begin to Question Church
- Glenn Hager – Finding Church Review
As leaders, it’s always hard when people leave you to join another fellowship. My experience is that it’s rarely because the church has become ‘dead’ as was suggested but they have become offended at something, and basically they have lost their love for you and the people!
While it’s sad to lose people, It wouldn’t be so difficult if after moving on they remained friends. But this rarely happens. I don’t see it as a ‘faith filled move’ when moving churches causes them to be against what they left! I feel that there is a case to be made for those who leave a church because that church is moving forward and changing to meet the demands of a changing society and some people just don’t like it! Some don’t want to go beyond the first three stages of faith (Hadberg/Geulich) and so leave to find a more religious expression that they are comfortable with and that’s fine providing they admit it, rather than rubbishing off what they once loved.
What you suggest may happen, but most of the people we know who have left or switched thought the “church” had no love for them. We moved on to follow Jesus outside the walls. Immediately we discovered that the people from that church no longer knew us when we saw them at the store, in the street or anywhere. We weren’t angry. We simply left. Others who had left the church told us much the same thing. No one was “rubbishing off what they once loved.” If anything, they left knowing they were not loved.