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

by Wayne Jacobsen

“If it needs commitment, maybe you’re missing something?” “For instance?” I prompted him. “I don’t know. Hunger . . . reality . . . God’s presence, perhaps. It could be a lot of things, but if you don’t sort that out, then anything you do together will not celebrate God’s reality but try to be a substitute for it. And no substitute for God ever suffices. That’s why we obligate people to a meeting rather than equip them to live in him. I’ve found that when people are discover-ing what it means to live in Father, they won’t need commitment to keep them linked. He will be enough to do that.” “But don’t we learn how to trust him through the body?” “Actually, it works the other way around. Trust doesn’t flow out of body life, it flows into it!” “But what if people don’t know how to trust?” “Certainly we can help one another learn to grow in trust, but that growth is the prerequisite for sharing life together, not the fruit of it. Remember when you were back at City Center? How many decisions and policies were made because you were afraid—of people not coming, not growing, not giving money, or falling through the cracks and getting lost?” “Probably ninety percent,” I responded. “Most of our discussions had to do with our concerns that someone would make a mistake—hurting themselves or embarrassing the congregation.” “Then 90 percent of what you did was based on fear rather than trust. And you passed that same insecurity on to