A friend of mine sent me this link summarizing a study which describes a movement that I seem to be a part of:
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=201
Here’s a snippit:
Relying upon national research conducted over the past several years, Barna profiles a group of more than 20 million adults throughout the nation labeled “revolutionaries.” He noted that although measures of traditional church participation in activities such as worship attendance, Sunday school, prayer, and Bible reading have remained relatively unchanged during the past twenty years, the Revolutionary faith movement is growing rapidly.
“These are people who are less interested in attending church than in being the church,” he explained. “We found that there is a significant distinction in the minds of many people between the local church – with a small ‘c’ – and the universal Church – with a capital ‘C’. Revolutionaries tend to be more focused on being the Church, capital C, whether they participate in a congregational church or not.”
“A common misconception about revolutionaries,” he continued, “is that they are disengaging from God when they leave a local church. We found that while some people leave the local church and fall away from God altogether, there is a much larger segment of Americans who are currently leaving churches precisely because they want more of God in their life but cannot get what they need from a local church. They have decided to get serious about their faith by piecing together a more robust faith experience. Instead of going to church, they have chosen to be the Church, in a way that harkens back to the Church detailed in the Book of Acts.”
…
Asked if this meant that the Revolution he describes is simply a negative reaction to the local church, he suggested that most Revolutionaries go through predictable phases in their spiritual journey in which they initially become dissatisfied with their local church experience, then attempt to change things so their faith walk can be more fruitful. The result is that they undergo heightened frustration over the inability to introduce positive change, which leads them to drop out of the local church altogether, often in anger. But because this entire adventure was instigated by their love for God and their desire to honor Him more fully, they finally transcend their frustration and anger by creating a series of connections that allow them to stay close to God and other believers without involvement in a local church.
WHOA. I think there must be something supernatural going on with regards to this “movement”. During the past few years, I’ve been ranting and raving about this new philosophy I have on faith and church–especially the bit about “Church” (with a capital C) vs. “church” (with a little C). I’ve gone through this faith journey as a result of many different factors: experiencing disappointment with the local church, absorbing new ideas about better ways to attack the problem of poverty, setting goals for my future, etc… I used to think my ideas were coming from a place of hurt and therefore weren’t valid; and other people have definitely made me feel like that’s true. I’ve even started to accept it and become resigned to the fact that I’m a weirdo.
But this article validates everything I’ve gone through. It says there are about 20 million other American Christians who are similarly discontent with the conventional belief that being a Christian is just about going to church services every Sunday and being a good person. There are 20 million other people who agree with me that God is calling us to more than living a comfortable life. There are 20 million other people who believe that God is calling us to submit *everything* to him: not just 10% of our income, but 100% of our lives.
Think about faith and service with a larger perspective. What can you do to make a difference in this world? Does serving your local church fill your God-serving quota? Think about serving God in a much larger capacity.
