Sacred Space: “Church?” for those Done with Church, but Not God

November 18, 2018 Roland Kuhl 1 Comment

Looks like I may not be as regular as I hoped to be in reflecting on my 64^th year – so its an occasional reflecting. That’s okay too.

Since moving to La Crosse, and even before moving here from Illinois, I was connecting more and more with people who might identify themselves as being “done with church, but not with God.” I discover these persons as I engage in conversation with them in coffee shops, taverns, and in any place where the Spirit has led me in connecting with others. Up here in La Crosse it has been in the same places, but also the students in my religious studies courses are more and more identifying themselves in this way.

Many of such encounters are serendipitous, or Spirit-led coincidences in which I have the opportunity to hear the stories of others, their questions, their doubts, their seeking God outside of the church. In fact, many seek to be spiritual, but no longer expect to really connect God in the church.

This morning, I was thinking if there is a way to intentionally gather as a community of people who are done with church, but not with God. The challenge is not trying to start another church in being with those who are done with church, so how can those done with church do “church” without doing church?

In the first place, maybe we need to reframe how we think about church in North America. In the New Testament, the understanding of church is not a place where people gather, but rather, it signifies the people who gather together around Jesus, wherever they gather. There is no specific place where church gathers – though it has become that in Western culture, but rather it is expressive of those who find commonality by being together in Jesus. The term church is something like the term family. Family is about the people who make up family, not where families have homes. Likewise, church is about people who gather around Jesus, not the buildings in which they gather.

I suspect though that those who are done with church, are not merely done with buildings, but with what has come to be represented by church – a set of rites, a set of beliefs, practices, barriers, agendas that have been enacted in ways that have brought pain, harm, alienation, division, being treated inhumanely in some way. I know this, because over 25 years ago I left the church pastorate because I realized I was doing harm in the way I was pastoring – I was enacting what I deemed to be effective church growth techniques in creating vision, forging ministry, using people for higher ends. I realized in the midst of this, in using people, rather than fully walking alongside with persons helping them attend to God, that I was harming them. So, I left because this is not how I intended to be a pastor – there had to be a different of pastoring. I wandered for about 15 years in my own desert experience, through academic contexts. I reflected and discovered a different way to pastor, though I never thought I would pastor again – no churches were looking for a new way of pastoring. It was not until a Mennonite community in Illinois gave me space to experiment with a different kind of pastoring that I pastored again. I enjoyed my seven years with them walking alongside with them, as we discovered how to attend to God together as a people, as a community, engaging Scripture, communicating with God, discerning the leading of the Spirit for vision and ministry, and participated in spiritual conversations and practices.

Here in La Crosse, I am without congregation and so I am somewhat of pastoring “at large” in the community. As I look around at the growing number of people who are “done with church, but not with God,” I realize, by and large, the church in North America is still doing harm in the way we do church. In some ways, I am done with church too – at least in the way we are doing church in North America. Yet, I long to gather with those who seek to discover life in the way of Jesus – and so I am thinking there is got to be a way for such sacred space to occur, where those done with church can gather to be “church – a gathered community around Jesus” without being church in our culture.

This morning three of us gathered at JavaVino in a time of sacred space (it happened to be my wife and my daughter visiting from Australia). We spoke life into one another’s lives as we focused on Scripture (engaged the texts for today from the Revised Common Lectionary) and explored together what it means to be human in the way of Jesus. We were being “church” without doing church.

Maybe there are others who would find such a gathering helpful for their spiritual journey as they seek to walk in the way of Jesus. Perhaps it might be good to gather together on Sunday mornings or another time during the week, where we can share in sacred space, speak life into one another’s lives, helping each other live life in the way of Jesus in our community. Real living is messy and spirituality can be messy as well. Learning from Jesus how we are to be human in new ways helps me live and love in new ways.

I found this morning to be deeply spiritual for me and drew me closer in connecting with Jesus as the three of us gathered together around Jesus seeking to live out the life of Jesus together. Whether there are others or not, I believe the practice of taking time to be in sacred space on Sunday mornings is something I need in my life. So, you’ll find me at JavaVino on Sunday mornings – by myself or with others, open to discover what God may bring about in our lives as we gather together around the way of Jesus.