Detox from Church

There's a website called "the off ramp" that is written by two former Vinyard pastors. They left their positions because they realized that working on the staff of a large church was toxic to their faith. They didn't realize it right away, it took some time away from it to get their perspective, but once they did, they knew that they had been sucked into a lifestyle that was often at odds with what Jesus asked them to do.

I've had similar conversations with people in my own life. One person remarked after they had been away from their church position that "I could actually hear the Holy Spirit speaking to me again." Another person I spoke to said that after several years of worship leading in a very large church, they knew they had lost their true calling.

Recently a woman that is part of Missio Lux told me that once she stopped participating at our parent church, she began to have connection with Jesus that looked very different than what she had experienced while in church.

Is it possible that we have allowed our worship to be more about the church than Jesus?

Is it possible that we have gotten so busy "running the church" that we lost sight of the fact that "we are the church"?

Is it possible that we have substituted activity for relationship?

It is vital that we put relationship with Our Creator before anything else. Time with the One who Loves Us puts the rest of our day on an even keel that carries us through challenges and joys. Time with Jesus gives us space to make room for his priorities in our life.

Missio Lux is not about creating busy Christians. We seek to be authentic Jesus followers that are living counter culturally to both our world and to much of the traditional church.

We want to live lives of worship, making room for Jesus' interuptions in our day to help a neighbor or a stranger. We want to experience community of coming together with people who Know who we are, so we don't feel the familiar isolation that is so prevelent in American culture. We want to leave a meaningful impact on the world, one created through relationship and lived out of the missio that God has planted into our spirits.

Now, let's take a deep breath and enjoy the summer day.