So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore

Jake Colsen. Windblown Media 2006, Paperback, 191 pages, $11.99

A few years ago, a friend sent me an email with a couple of links to articles: “Why House Church Isn’t the Answer” and “Why I Don’t Go to Church Anymore” (along with a brief note saying he didn’t necessarily agree with everything the author had written, but…). I read both articles, and they didn’t seem extreme at all. I was challenged; and I filed it all away.

Not long after that I met John. The friend who introduced us thought I might be a good influence on him. You see John was a follower of Jesus who had stopped going to church. We started meeting regularly, because he lived close and we both needed an English speaking friend. It was more than that, of course, which became clear over time. Each time we met I’d steer the conversation toward our responsibility to help Japanese people come to know Jesus. I didn’t mind that he didn’t go to church, but I wanted him to be strategic (and to join in making my plans a reality if possible…). But he would never bite. Instead he just went on and on about Jesus. How frustrating. Eventually I began to wonder about why that frustrated me and whether maybe — possibly — I might have something to learn from John rather than a duty to “fix” him.

He loaned me a copy of Watchman Nee’s book, Christ the Sum of All Things, and he mentioned Wayne Jacobsen (the author of the articles mentioned above). Wayne and a friend were writing a book and publishing one chapter at a time online. One day I clearly remember stopping, putting a serious expression on my face, and telling my wife that I sensed a huge movement of people (Christians, that is) beginning to move away from “church” as we’d known it. House churches, the “emergent conversation,” and stray articles online were just the tip of the iceberg, I said — half speculating and half convinced.

That was about four years ago. Today we don’t go to church anymore in that old sense of the word. We haven’t for a long time, because church isn’t a place to go or a thing to do. We are the church and we participate in the life of Christ’s church every day as we follow Jesus in relationship with others who share the same relationship and calling.

About three years ago, as we started this journey (actually we’d started years before that but we didn’t realize it then), the first word that hit me was “reality.” I went away for a weekend and read most of The Sacred Romance, and somewhere in the middle I realized that if Jesus is real, then there is no mundane moment or place. If his love is real, then I can celebrate that on the dullest day and even my best shining achievements pale in comparison. I started talking about living in reality like something I’d discovered after years of something else. Honestly, I think people do a lot of pretending; I did.

I want to wrap this up. I just wanted to say that this week I sensed the movement (the iceberg of which I’d seen the tip) is very close to the surface. You can see it. Not that it needs to be seen or harnessed by anyone (which many will attempt and fail). I think God is doing something great, and all the ripples (with labels like emerging, missional, house church, etc) are just…well, ripples on the swell.

It’s hard to see a swell on the ocean (unless you’re a surfer and paying attention). I’m not much of a surfer (literally or figuratively), but here are a few things I see.

• The Shack is a runaway best seller. The book hardly speaks of church at all — it’s focused on the greater reality of God’s love. The Shack is riding on the swell.
• Wayne Jacobsen, who wrote the articles and book I linked to above, helped discover and publish The Shack. Now his influence and books sales are expanding. I don’t think he cares about all that, but he’s living in the reality of what Christ is doing. We’ll see what happens next. Maybe he’ll hang ten. (He wrote the book picture above with a co-author under a pseudonym (read it for free here).
• A very popular talk radio host says he follows Jesus but disdains religion. He has attracted a huge following of people who are following Jesus outside traditional church-clubs. Wayne was on his radio show last week (listen here).
• Even the rise of Barack Obama in the USA strikes me as a sign of these times. People are hungry for change and tired of systems that cynically manage and control. They want someone or something REAL — and I’m convinced they’re ultimately searching not for Barack (though he seems like a good guy to me) but for the God of Love revealed in Christ.

And there are many more small and large things and my intuition as well. I just wanted to note for the record we’re on the verge of something bigger than the sum of what we have called Christianity. And the reality of it will be known by people who are in the water (surfing in the reality and love of God that’s here now) and lastly by those talking about it on the beach.

I want to be in the water!