A brief history of my exodus…

Here is a quick history and explanation of why I dont go to church anymore. I have said most of this before but this is more concise. To start off, I grew up in church and volunteered for everything. I feel like Paul… “A Christian of Christians” to steal a phrase. I’ve put my Christian resume on the web and it’s a long one so I won’t re post it here unless someone asks. If you haven’t seen it, i recommend it. I did everything from cleaning to preaching. Honestly i always felt a little weird about church and youth group. I always felt we should be doing more or that we were wasting time. I didn’t let myself feel this way but eventually i started “thinking outside the box”. I think the first thing that sparked a change was reading, “The irresistible revolution”. Shane Claiborne wrote it and he said things that blew me away. Very different thinking, yet he still “went to church”. I remember reading things that were not really talked about in church and thinking, “Wow! he is right!” Basically he was saying we dont really look like Christ. He had to go see mother Theresa to “see a Christian”. This guy wasn’t a Christian because he went to church, he was a Christian because he did Christ like things. He hung out with the homeless and kids in war ridden countries. This was amazing. When i talked to my youth pastor about the book and his actions he said he couldn’t see Christ hanging out with the homeless and helping them like Shane did. I was flabbergasted. It was the most Christian thing i had ever seen and this pastor was telling me Jesus wouldn’t stand up for homeless people! I wanted to learn all i could and one book led me to another. Now before people think i am led astray with every book out there let me say that i read alot and they are often conflicting views. Even the “Anti Church” books dont agree. Some of the books i’ve read tell you to stay in “church” some say go to a “house church” and some suggest not going to any meetings if you don’t feel led. I dont follow everything i read, i take truth from everything. If i learn something i dont care where it comes from, i will learn something and move on. I am sure Christ learned something from Satan after being tempted. He was learning from evil but it was a lesson. He learned what Satan wanted to do, he learned his motivations. I’ve learned something from people in many denominations, people outside “church” and even atheists. What pushed me over the edge was “Pagan Christianity”.  The book outlines many church practices and where they came from. It showed me that the “church” as we know it is unnecessary. I am using the word “church” as the institution and building and system here, not people. Christians hold so many traditions as sacred and i started to wonder why. Especially because they were NOT in the Bible. If this was our guidebook why were we taking notes from ordinary men in history. People had ideas on how to streamline things and we go from people exited to get together and talk about Jesus to a dry meeting or a performance or concert or lecture we MUST go to to earn our salvation. This didn’t seem right. Besides the fact that many Christians do things their own way and not the Bibles way and swear up and down they do it the “good books” way. This really turned me off. So much so that i hesitate to call myself a Christian anymore. I often refer to others as Christians but not myself. Not because of what it originally meant but because of what it has turned into. Now Christianity is totally different from what it was 2000 years ago. Why should i associate myself with such a bastard? Anyways that’s my reasons, if i left anything out please ask quesions!

~ by kameronmessmer on April 27, 2009.