Jesus Didn’t Go to Church

Jesus didn’t go to church and neither can I.

On May 5, 2011 I posted this article: Should I Start Another Church?. Boy, was that a mistake!

A mistake for certain reasons:

1. I upset people. Some people from the church I left over a year ago misunderstood and thought I would set up an alternative or competition and threaten the life of that church. I had no intention of doing that and still don’t.
2. I excited people. The expectations people have for “church” are just so loaded that I would just never be able to fulfill them all. Not that I ever tried to fulfill expectations before, but the volume (both in mass and decibels) of expectations in response to my post was just overwhelming and impossible. To be honest it completely freaked me out.

But, even though I believe it was a mistake to write that post the way that I did, I certainly learned something from it. I learned that I can’t even use the word “church”. It is too loaded. I also learned that I can’t go back into the church as we know it. I simply can’t. It would kill me and hurt others. Neither can I start another church as we know it. It would kill me and frustrate too many people.

I still believe in the right, privilege and freedom of Christians gathering in a healthy manner. But how that is done is of increasing importance and impossibility.

The post was a fortunate disaster. I apologize.

Jesus didn’t go to church and neither can I.

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