So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore: An Unexpected Journey

by Wayne Jacobsen

I’ve been with. Many have people in them who try to control the others. Don’t get me wrong—I love the priorities you just outlined and I’m convinced that a home is the best place to live them. But I know people who meet in buildings who are incredibly relational, and some who meet in homes who are not. The location isn’t the issue, but whether you are caught up in religious games or helping one another discover the incredible relationship God wants with us.” “Didn’t the early church only meet in homes, especially as it spread outside Jerusalem?” Ben added. “As far as we know, yes.” “So then that’s the way we should do it,” Marsha chimed in. “Marsha, Marsha, why do you love that word so much?” John asked her with deep tenderness in his voice. “What word?” Marsha acted stunned. “The same word that John hasn’t been using all night,” Roary broke in. He turned to John. “I’ve listened to you carefully and you haven’t used the word ‘should’ one time tonight. Is that intentional?” “Why do you ask?” “I’ve been told all my life what I should and shouldn’t do, especially about religious things. But you haven’t talked in those terms at all. You seem to see this not as choosing between right and wrong but simply living in a reality that already exists. I thought you would tell us how we should do church.” “If there is anything I’d say we should do, it would be to stop ‘should’-ing ourselves, and others.”