The Perfect Christian Sausage

Recently I was contacted by an old church friend from almost 20 years ago. He read the blog and says he's wrestling with many of the same issues as me. I've also been part of a church which has done the 40 days of community. What both these things had in common was that I got to talk to with people who weren't sitting right with church or the whole 40 days of community thing what is more they were to afraid to say anything because everyone around them was doing just fine, and they just felt uncomfortable saying anything, like they may upset or distress people with their thoughts. Now, I'm sure there are some great things happening at my old friends current church and I know of some great things that have come out of the 40 days of community thing. None the less in both cases I know of people who have been Xn for a while who just feel like it's not their thing and that saying so would really rock the boat.

At the moment I'm thinking it's not just the structure or the institution or the songs or the dogma that people have an issue. It's the whole process. Church can often feel like a sausage factory where we take the raw lump of new Xn and churn them through the sausage factory until they're a perfect Xn sausage. Becoming the sausage is is usually a pleasant enough experience for most people, but then what do you do once you are a sausage, to many of us feel that their faith has to be far more to it than just this. My concern with the emerging church ventures is that they are changing the structures, institutions, styles and dogma, but the process is still the same.

What I feel is lacking is somewhere were we can really wrestle with our ideas about God especially when that means falling out of the bounds of Xn orthodioxy and where we can collectively nuture each other inspiring each other to venture in to new territory of living out faiuth and wrestlimng with faith. Perhaps the only thing that we would have in common is that we know we don't have God or the meaning and purpose of life sorted out compleetly and we have had Jesus as our common starting point. Is that to wishy washy to flimsy? It would mean liberal and evangelical Xns feeling comfortable sitting side by side assuming that they can learn from each other. All I know is that I finished going through the sausage machine a long time ago and I'm at the other end with more things to wrestle with than when I began.

I think I'm at stage 4 or stage 5 of Fowler's Stages of Faith. The problem for me with these stages of faith is that it assumes some kind of hierarchy over others, which I am uncomfortable with. None the less these stages can be helpful particularly as the Perfect Xn Sausage tends to ends at stage 3. A stage characterised by conformity. A quick search and I'm sure you will find plenty of blog posts and articles about all this so I won't embellish on that here. What is worth mentioning is that often it is not only Xns who are past this stage of faith and then leave church, or at best politely sitting up the back not saying anything but it is also non Xn people who have reached this stage without Jesus and will not even look at Xy as they feel like they have already out grown it.

Today I'm feeling frustrated with the institution of church not because I feel like I don't quite but because too many others I know, who are nowhere near as stubborn as I am, feel like they don't fit. I think the church will continue to die not because it fails to be attractive to new comers but because it is pushing away the kinds of people like my old friend and those who didn't click with the 40 days thing and many more in similar people. I worry that too many are pushed up the back politely not saying anything and this is more dangerous than out being pushed out the door as it makes it easy to miss or ignore.

Rant over. :)