I'm late to the party - thank you so much for this!
I'm particularly drawn to suggestion 5. "Create a culture of storytelling — "journey telling" — in your congregation."
I love this, and I believe it is spot on. My experience is, however, that many members in my congregation struggle a great deal to share their journey in story and memoir... I wonder if you, or anyone, could point me in the direction of some resources that might be helpful working with people as they learn to discover and articulate their very personal stories?
I’m raising kids in the Episcopal church and feeling very confused about how to do so. It seems that so few kids raised in this church develop a strong faith that orients them in the world. The alternative seems to be instilling a strong faith in a more conservative tradition, in which they seem to really want to find a church home rather than just not care at all (many of the kids in our church school are brought by their grandparents.) However, these traditions are often very narrow minded and fail to embody the fullness of Jesus’s message in ways that can be quite damaging. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I personally was brought up UU but had a strong faith in God and so became a Christian. I am perplexed that my church primarily has ex Catholics and evangelicals. I hope that my children are oriented away from a consumerist materialist culture towards the paradoxes embodied and taught by Jesus that describe and illuminate truth and reality. I’d rather have them follow any of the Great Traditions rather than be overtaken by the shallow false values of this culture. But I worry whether my mainline tradition is strong enough to withstand the pressures of modern society.
This is a precious article.. and truly truly.. if one is will.. a sign of the last days.. so again ‘beware’... “...the precious precious ones whom we love.. because Christ first loved me (us)...”
This confirms my own experience returning to church after 9 years absence, and I'm not even an evangelical. Organized religion is so busy keeping itself fed and watered, its churches are not listening. People are looking for a place to fit and be, not for a place to volunteer...at least not in the in the first 5 minutes! Continuing to turn a deaf ear will strengthen the trend away because lots have also heard Jesus say: "Get me outta here". And, of course...each of us are bearers of that divine light...at least some of the time. :-)
Your text after the list of 5 suggested ways to ready to welcome ex-evangelicals was the better reminder of how to welcome the stranger. Love them and discover you like them.
Really love your writing and love hearing you with Tripp on the Homebrewed Christianity podcast. Thanks!
Anyway, I think what you're seeing is very hopeful to me. Is there a coalescence of groups of people that wouldn't necessarily listen to each other in the past going on? Outside the religious realm, I saw you quoted today by someone on Daily Kos and I know you follow The Bulwark. Strange days indeed!
Just read the Robert Putnam book, Upswing:How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. Worth reading and I would love your take on it as a historian. Really interesting book to me and I am, indeed, starting to see parallels between what happened then and what is happening now.
Not sure if there will be a rise in religiosity and churchgoing like then without a new message or framing of what Jesus said, but who knows? BTW, I deconstructed back in the 90s and haven't found a sufficient reason to join a church since. (Has to be a pretty good reason as an introvert)
You certainly understand the pilgrims. I am one. I thought I had found a place in a church plant, filled with young people and those beginning their families. Sure, I was older, and there were others that were on the tail of the boom. As the church plant matured it became, in the words of someone I love, “same old thing in skinny jeans.” Despondent, I took a break from church to read and find a denomination that had made a decision for inclusivity . . . a place where no one was eliminated from a role at birth or for their choice of partner. St. Paul’s became my place to try church again. Very grateful I did not give up the pilgrim journey. In the words of my son, “I’ve got to give it to you mom, you just keep trying.” Indeed.
A friend is a Methodist and has been all of his life. Recently several prominent Assembly folks have been attending worship there and the number seems to be growing. The service is traditional . What does that say? Maybe there ears need a rest from LOUD Music.
Thank you for this helpful article. My husband and I are in our 30s and currently searching for a church. We grew up in that CCM, purity culture bubble, went to Bible School after High School, etc. We first starting searching for something different before the pandemic after a particularly bad experience with a right-leaning, super Charismatic church with no real oversight. The pastor would randomly make decisions with seemingly no accountability. We then attended a non-denom that had Baptist roots, but was not affirming and seemed to still be in the seeker-friendly model of the early 2000s, so we never felt connected because no one knew our names. Recently, we have been attending a church that is very welcoming, but I’m afraid not affirming of LGBTQIA+ or women, for that matter. I’ve always considered myself to be a “church person”, but I’m growing weary.
I read your wonderful and helpful post last evening! So much food for thought ! And I copied on a three by five card your "Dump the magical thinking" paragraph.
so important especially for those who are post evangelical seekers of a Christ Centered community but also, for those of us who have sought a Christ Centered Community for our children , grandchildren, and ourselves/myself because of being suffocated in our beloved mainline organizations. I am not a none, that is a numbers game to me and used too easily by some clergy. If asked I identify as a Non Institutional Christian. Retired now I still need and want to worship in community when possible and at The Cottage. Why, Because it is also a community where one can grow Spiritually . Thank you Cottagers and Diana! Peace, Bonita
I’m on judicatory staff for a mainline denomination. You mentioned that ex-evangelicals are looking for a place where people aren’t mean, but I have run into so many church bullies in my work. Do you have suggested practices for these little mainline churches to deal effectively with their “mean people?”
I know you asked Diana , Have you tried Love, It is the hardest thing for me to do in the case of perceived bullying . But call them on it. Listen to their story in the process of adjudication. And at some point we need to say stop.
"Don’t shy away from talking about politics in ways appropriate to your community.'
My husband is pastor of a church on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay - and we both struggle with being our honest, unvarnished selves when in conversation with more conservative members of our church. So often we are encouraged to 'meet them where they're at ' when it seems more honest to tell the truth without sugar-coating it. My life experience proves that while a hard truth may not be immediately accepted, will be understood and embraced later. We are UMC, and course we are sitting on the proverbial powder keg right now.
Sorry to be so long winded, but I wonder what you think.
I do think churches need to be honest about hard issues - especially right now when political identity may well be more important to most people than religious. Basically, I believe that such conversations need to happen in context - attending to the history, culture, and "neighborhood" in which a community lives. There's never a one-size fits all program for engaging politics, but it is the hard work of pastoral imagination meeting prophetic urgency. Tough? Yes. And part of our job in following Jesus. Know your folks, love them well, speak the priorities of the kin(g)dom, care for your neighbors and wider community. That's all I got.
Thank you.
I'm late to the party - thank you so much for this!
I'm particularly drawn to suggestion 5. "Create a culture of storytelling — "journey telling" — in your congregation."
I love this, and I believe it is spot on. My experience is, however, that many members in my congregation struggle a great deal to share their journey in story and memoir... I wonder if you, or anyone, could point me in the direction of some resources that might be helpful working with people as they learn to discover and articulate their very personal stories?
I’m raising kids in the Episcopal church and feeling very confused about how to do so. It seems that so few kids raised in this church develop a strong faith that orients them in the world. The alternative seems to be instilling a strong faith in a more conservative tradition, in which they seem to really want to find a church home rather than just not care at all (many of the kids in our church school are brought by their grandparents.) However, these traditions are often very narrow minded and fail to embody the fullness of Jesus’s message in ways that can be quite damaging. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I personally was brought up UU but had a strong faith in God and so became a Christian. I am perplexed that my church primarily has ex Catholics and evangelicals. I hope that my children are oriented away from a consumerist materialist culture towards the paradoxes embodied and taught by Jesus that describe and illuminate truth and reality. I’d rather have them follow any of the Great Traditions rather than be overtaken by the shallow false values of this culture. But I worry whether my mainline tradition is strong enough to withstand the pressures of modern society.
Wine skins (church buildings) hold but the precious ones whom we love..
As we go forward.. where’ar we go.. we must beware that our hearts mustn’t grow cold..
We love ❤️💚💙💫 ever growing nearer.. to know Him.. to know Him crucified..
Our precious Lord.. Jesus.. The Christ who’s come!!
Come! Lord Jesus.
Perfect love(💙). Come!
❤️💚💙💫
,-w
This is a precious article.. and truly truly.. if one is will.. a sign of the last days.. so again ‘beware’... “...the precious precious ones whom we love.. because Christ first loved me (us)...”
Love this forum.
Love you guys.
❤️💚💙💫
,-w
This confirms my own experience returning to church after 9 years absence, and I'm not even an evangelical. Organized religion is so busy keeping itself fed and watered, its churches are not listening. People are looking for a place to fit and be, not for a place to volunteer...at least not in the in the first 5 minutes! Continuing to turn a deaf ear will strengthen the trend away because lots have also heard Jesus say: "Get me outta here". And, of course...each of us are bearers of that divine light...at least some of the time. :-)
Your text after the list of 5 suggested ways to ready to welcome ex-evangelicals was the better reminder of how to welcome the stranger. Love them and discover you like them.
Hi Diana,
Really love your writing and love hearing you with Tripp on the Homebrewed Christianity podcast. Thanks!
Anyway, I think what you're seeing is very hopeful to me. Is there a coalescence of groups of people that wouldn't necessarily listen to each other in the past going on? Outside the religious realm, I saw you quoted today by someone on Daily Kos and I know you follow The Bulwark. Strange days indeed!
Just read the Robert Putnam book, Upswing:How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. Worth reading and I would love your take on it as a historian. Really interesting book to me and I am, indeed, starting to see parallels between what happened then and what is happening now.
Not sure if there will be a rise in religiosity and churchgoing like then without a new message or framing of what Jesus said, but who knows? BTW, I deconstructed back in the 90s and haven't found a sufficient reason to join a church since. (Has to be a pretty good reason as an introvert)
Thanks again!
You certainly understand the pilgrims. I am one. I thought I had found a place in a church plant, filled with young people and those beginning their families. Sure, I was older, and there were others that were on the tail of the boom. As the church plant matured it became, in the words of someone I love, “same old thing in skinny jeans.” Despondent, I took a break from church to read and find a denomination that had made a decision for inclusivity . . . a place where no one was eliminated from a role at birth or for their choice of partner. St. Paul’s became my place to try church again. Very grateful I did not give up the pilgrim journey. In the words of my son, “I’ve got to give it to you mom, you just keep trying.” Indeed.
A friend is a Methodist and has been all of his life. Recently several prominent Assembly folks have been attending worship there and the number seems to be growing. The service is traditional . What does that say? Maybe there ears need a rest from LOUD Music.
Thank you for this helpful article. My husband and I are in our 30s and currently searching for a church. We grew up in that CCM, purity culture bubble, went to Bible School after High School, etc. We first starting searching for something different before the pandemic after a particularly bad experience with a right-leaning, super Charismatic church with no real oversight. The pastor would randomly make decisions with seemingly no accountability. We then attended a non-denom that had Baptist roots, but was not affirming and seemed to still be in the seeker-friendly model of the early 2000s, so we never felt connected because no one knew our names. Recently, we have been attending a church that is very welcoming, but I’m afraid not affirming of LGBTQIA+ or women, for that matter. I’ve always considered myself to be a “church person”, but I’m growing weary.
I read your wonderful and helpful post last evening! So much food for thought ! And I copied on a three by five card your "Dump the magical thinking" paragraph.
so important especially for those who are post evangelical seekers of a Christ Centered community but also, for those of us who have sought a Christ Centered Community for our children , grandchildren, and ourselves/myself because of being suffocated in our beloved mainline organizations. I am not a none, that is a numbers game to me and used too easily by some clergy. If asked I identify as a Non Institutional Christian. Retired now I still need and want to worship in community when possible and at The Cottage. Why, Because it is also a community where one can grow Spiritually . Thank you Cottagers and Diana! Peace, Bonita
I’m on judicatory staff for a mainline denomination. You mentioned that ex-evangelicals are looking for a place where people aren’t mean, but I have run into so many church bullies in my work. Do you have suggested practices for these little mainline churches to deal effectively with their “mean people?”
I know you asked Diana , Have you tried Love, It is the hardest thing for me to do in the case of perceived bullying . But call them on it. Listen to their story in the process of adjudication. And at some point we need to say stop.
Hey Diana! I'm wondering what you mean by this:
"Don’t shy away from talking about politics in ways appropriate to your community.'
My husband is pastor of a church on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay - and we both struggle with being our honest, unvarnished selves when in conversation with more conservative members of our church. So often we are encouraged to 'meet them where they're at ' when it seems more honest to tell the truth without sugar-coating it. My life experience proves that while a hard truth may not be immediately accepted, will be understood and embraced later. We are UMC, and course we are sitting on the proverbial powder keg right now.
Sorry to be so long winded, but I wonder what you think.
Mona
I do think churches need to be honest about hard issues - especially right now when political identity may well be more important to most people than religious. Basically, I believe that such conversations need to happen in context - attending to the history, culture, and "neighborhood" in which a community lives. There's never a one-size fits all program for engaging politics, but it is the hard work of pastoral imagination meeting prophetic urgency. Tough? Yes. And part of our job in following Jesus. Know your folks, love them well, speak the priorities of the kin(g)dom, care for your neighbors and wider community. That's all I got.
This is well written and truth be told. Thank you
Thank you for your writings. I'm wondering if your July postings will be printable so they can be added to my copy of the hardback book?
Thank you!!