"So You Dont Want to go to Church Anymore"

I read a book yesterday that was very thought-provoking to me.
I found it at Walmart and picked it up just because the title caught my eye.
It's called "So You Don't Want to go to Church Anymore" by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman.

It's just a fiction book about a guy who meets a man who he believes may be John the Disciple, still living today. The whole point of the book is that John is trying to get the character Jake to see that the institution of church does not always lead to a real relationship with Christ.

It just had so many things in it that totally rang true to me. I wanted to share some of the ideas in the book and see what y'all thought about them. (All quotes are taken from the book.)

"Don't you realize that the most powerful thing about the gospel is that it liberates us from the concept that God dwells in any building?"

"There's not one thing you can do to make him love you any more today; and there's not one thing you can do to make him love you any less either. He just loves you."

"Men and women might give you acclaim for memorizing Scriptures or attending services, but those are never going to be enough to earn a relationship. Besides, you're pursuing them not because you want to know God, but because you want people to think that you're spiritual. And you know what? That is what you're getting out of it."

"Relationship with him is a gift, freely given. The point of the cross was that he could do for us what we could never do ourselves. The key is not found in how much you love him, but how much he loves you. It begins in him. Learn that and your relationship will begin to grow."

"Walking in his life will always mean you are going against the grain. Don't expect your circumstances to conform easily to this journey. They will resist at every turn. God wants to teach you how to walk with him through these things so that you can know a joy and peace that transcends circumstance."

"When we're looking to the future, we're not listening to Father. Anything we do to try and guarantee stability on our own terms will actually rob us of the freedom to simply follow him today. We'll resort to our own wisdom instead of following His. The greatest freedom God can give you is to trust his ability to take care of you each day."

"Do you remember teaching your children to use a fork?"
"Not exactly...."
"But they all use one, I assume. Did you send them to fork school, or have a Powerpoint presentation on the make-up and use of a fork?"
"It sounds silly, doesn't it? But as long as we think of this life in Christ as knowledge to acquire instead of living in him, we'll do all kinds of foolish things."
"Embracing the life of Jesus is a lot more like learning to use that fork than it is sitting in meetings. Children will learn the truth as you help them learn to live it."

".....the Scriptures tell us very little about how the early church met. It tells us volumes about how they shared his life together. They didn't see the church as a meeting or an institution, but as a family living under Father."

"The church is God's people learning to share his life together."

"That's where religion has done the most damage. By making people dependent on its leaders, it has made God's people passive in their own spiritual growth. We wait for others to show us how, or even just follow them in hopes that they're getting it right. Jesus wants this relationship with you and he wants you to be an active part in that process."

"Is Jesus big enough to get through to you every day? Do you think he is big enough to get past your blind spots, overcome your doubts, and show you his way? Doesn't that get a resounding 'yes'? Share that journey together and you'll experience a body life more real than you've ever dreamed."

"Because people get together, sit in a room, sing some songs and share Scripture, they think they've experienced the life of the church. If that's all been real, they may have. More times than not, however, it's just a routine they feel good about having accomplished, but in the end they haven't really shared his life at all."

"Jesus said it only takes two or three and he never said anything about having to do it at the same time, same place, same way every week. He didn't seem to think of the church as something we do at all, or even go to, but a reality we live in every day."

"This life can't be neatly sewn up in the intellect; it must be uncovered in the journey. He'll make things clear to you as you need them."

"Jesus saw the church as a reality, not an assignment for his followers to construct."

"We call singing together 'worship' and regular attendance 'fellowship' and we've convinced ourselves we're actually doing these things just by coming, whether they're real in our hearts or not. We've taught people to be committed to our services and programs and let them think that doing so validates them."

So, what do y'all think? Have you read this book? Do you think that the institution of church has taken the place of a real relationship with Jesus? Or do you think this book and its ideas may do more harm than good?

I know for me, I feel lost. I was so excited to have this new relationship with Jesus! I thought the next logical step was to go to church. And I love the messages at church, but one hour a week is just not doing it for me. I feel like the blog world is more my church family. Y'all know me, my struggles, my fears and you accept me with all of those things and you've helped me to grow in my relationship with Christ in ways I had never thought possible before. I would love to have that with the people at my church, but it's not going to happen for an hour on Sunday. It just seems like such hard work to get to know anyone.......should it be this hard?

Anyways, I think that this is my 199th post!! Can you believe that I've had that much to say since November? LOL!! I am definitely going to have to think of something for a giveaway for my 200th post.......maybe a few of my favorite things! Check back tomorrow or the next day so that you can enter.....all you'll have to do is leave a comment :)