in 2006 I quit going to church and
consequently some of the most important
people in my life basically disowned me
but I had to quit because I was having a
crisis of faith it wasn’t so much that I
was having doubts about God or doubts
about Church instead I was having doubts
about the way we do church you see the
very first churches were just small
spiritual communities of friends and
neighbors that met in ordinary homes and
they basically functioned like extended
families the churches we have today are
more institutionalized legally speaking
they are more likely to be actual
corporations than simple communities
they usually meet in special buildings
instead of people’s homes and because of
all the manmade titles and hierarchy
they often function more like companies
than families when I recognize this
disconnect I quit and I spent the next
several years searching for a spiritual
community that looked and functioned
more like the early church so why should
this matter to anyone else because as I
would later discover millions of other
believers were actually leaving the
institutional church at this same time
and I believe this has implications for
everyone regardless of your relationship
to the church of course back then I
didn’t realize I was part of what might
be considered a growing movement today
and so I felt very much alone at the
time as far as I could tell there were
almost no books no podcasts no online
forums no real-world venues where anyone
seemed to be having a discussion about
the frustrations I felt about the
institutional church model and so I
finally decided to take those
frustrations and shared them online in
the form of an animated explainer video
and cartoon blog so let’s have some fun
here’s the one of the first cartoons I
shared it was on Christmas morning of
2013 as you can see I’ve got a little
cartoon Jesus he’s holding his birthday
present which looks conspicuously like a
church building in the cartoon his
father is saying what’s wrong Jesus you
said you wanted a church
for your birthday to which Jesus is
we’re playing yeah I did but I’m having
trouble getting it out of the box yeah
more laughter other cartoons and
animated videos followed where I started
to get into more specific critiques of
the institutional Church model and
pretty quickly I began to build a
following let me give you an example of
a more specific critique so one of the
most defining characteristics of early
church gatherings was the mutual
participation of each member
basically everyone present was expected
to share something kind of like the
spiritual equivalent of a potluck dinner
yeah the church gatherings we have now
look more like what we’re doing today
a bunch of people politely listening to
a single speaker giving a presentation
and so I did a cartoon about this –
here’s a pastor about – preaches Sunday
morning sermon and he’s saying today’s
sermon is titled the priesthood of all
believers ironically I will be doing all
the talking yes don’t get me wrong it’s
not that this isn’t a fantastic format
for disseminating information a matter
of fact that’s why I’m giving this
presentation right now but genuine
church community is more than just the
sharing of spiritual information it’s
actually more about spiritual formation
and just as the word discipleship
indicates any significant spiritual
formation is going to require mutual
participation for whatever reason this
reality seems lost in most of our church
gatherings did it today as a matter of
fact whenever I asked churchgoers what
are the main reasons you go to church
one answer that always makes the list is
this to get spiritually fed now if you
haven’t heard that term don’t worry this
is church speak for sitting and
listening to a sermon much the way we
would watch a movie or watch a game
we’ve turned today’s church gatherings
into mere spectator sports
the thinking is by merely listening to
weekly sermons my spiritual life is
going to be somehow strengthened even
though most of us are going to forget
what the sermon is about two days later
now we already know that sitting and
eating won’t make us physically healthy
so why would we think something similar
would make us spiritually healthy
spiritually speaking we don’t just need
to eat we also need to exercise since
there’s very little participation in
today’s church gatherings when exactly
do I get to exercise my calling if all I
do is sit and listen to information
without any application how am I
expected to ever grow in my own unique
spiritual gifts I’m not trying to
diminish the idea of a church Shepherd
spiritually feeding the flock but is
this all that’s required for being a
good shepherd furthermore doesn’t the
institutional church model look less
like shepherding sheep and more like
raising Beal for those who don’t know
raising veal starts with selecting a
calf and putting it in a special box the
very purpose of this box is to make sure
the calf always gets fed but never gets
any exercise this calf is known as a
veal crate and it will be this box is
known as a veal crate and it will be the
calf’s whole world for its entire life
from the moment it’s placed in the crate
the calf isn’t just fed but overfed yet
it’s never allowed to exercise because
that would build up muscle which would
prevent it from becoming tender and
tasty veal one day and so by the time
the calf is ready for slaughter it has
grown completely dependent upon its box
as a matter of fact by now it is so fat
and weak that if the box has ever
removed the calf can’t even stand on its
own anymore
now I’m not insinuating all church-going
believers are spiritually weak or
immature as a matter of fact I have the
good fortune of knowing many believers
who have sincerely devoted their lives
to genuinely loving their neighbors but
the question I’m asking is this did they
learn to love this way because of the
institutional church model or in spite
of it
now returning to my story since the
questions I asked are obviously quite
provocative I was pleasantly surprised
to see that many other believers started
to respond well to my work and so after
a series of well-received cartoons and
videos I eventually published a book
titled unchurched she anity my true
Christianity without churchianity now
just you know the term on churching was
actually inspired by the early leaders
of the homeschool movement who coined
the term unschooling basically they
wanted to ‘unschool their children by
removing education from the classroom
and returning it to the to the living
room since I wanted to do something
similar with church I began using the
term on churching but on churching at
least in the way I’m using the word
isn’t about separating believers from
church community it’s actually about
separating genuine church community from
the business model of the church
corporation so anyway the book in turn
led to a podcast which then burst an
online forum and eventually a national
conference and a host of local meetups
in various cities basically all the
things I was looking for that I couldn’t
find when I first quit going to church
I’ve been blessed to be able to provide
for a few other former churchgoers like
myself and because my critiques are
merely about the church model they are
not an attack on institutional church
people my work has also opened the door
for me to guest speak at institutional
churches and conferences and best of all
it has led to me finally finding the
type of spiritual community I was
looking for now your mileage may vary
but I now experience more fellowship
that I had in the institutional Church
more diversity more gender equality and
I’m free to invest my money merely into
people instead of pouring it into
expensive church buildings and programs
which spend at least half of their
resources on mere overhead expenses
however there’s still a big challenge in
discussing these ideas with believers
who are still in the institutional
church box and I think it’s because
cognitive dissonance is almost required
to embrace an institutional church
paradigm cognitive dissonance occurs
whenever a person simultaneously holds
at least two conflicting ideas and
here’s why I say this applies to the
institutional church paradigm if you ask
a bunch of churchgoers to define the
word Church almost all of them will tell
you a church is a group of people it’s
not a place it’s not a thing even if
their church owns a building they will
likely say the church is the spiritual
family that meets in that building not
the building itself however if you ask
those same churchgoers or if you just
listen to them use the word Church in
day-to-day conversation you’ll begin to
pick up on a contradiction because they
will also say things like what time does
church start what church do you go to
look at that beautiful old wooden church
now clearly this means the word Church
is not limited to just their spiritual
family but it also applies to something
separate from themselves otherwise if
they’re only talking about their
spiritual family when they’re using the
word Church this way they are
essentially saying what time does family
start what family do you go to look at
that beautiful old wooden family so yeah
I am poking a little fun here but the
truth remains we can’t have it both ways
if the church is merely people then it
isn’t something separate from us that we
can go to now just so you know a lot of
the illustrations that I’m using in this
presentation or from a free online comic
book I created and it is titled are you
ready why Christians don’t need to go to
church now yes the title is intended to
grab people’s attention but you should
know that in this comic book I am not
advocating that believers can’t gather
or shouldn’t gather all I’m really
saying is wherever believers are there’s
the church we don’t say we go to family
because we are family
like wise believers can’t go to church
because we are the church as I mentioned
earlier millions of believers are
starting to figure this out and it’s
creating a mass exodus from the
institutional church at the moment
however like myself many of these people
who are leaving are not abandoning their
faith I refer to them as unchurched
believers but they’re also referred to
as Duns because even though they are
still believers they are done with the
institutional Church model by
conservative estimates there are now
over thirty million of us in the United
States alone to put that in perspective
that is nearly 1 in every 10 people you
pass on the street not one in every 10
believers one in every 10 people and
since the US has been exporting our
institutional brand of Christianity for
generations now the implications of this
tectonic shift in the church landscape
could prove to be pretty far-reaching
now depending on your view of church and
your attitude toward church this could
be either very grim news or potentially
exciting news for believers who function
as if church is something separate from
themselves something which must be
attended this is bad news indeed since
church attendance is rapidly dropping
Church as they know it seems to be dying
for believers like myself who believe
the church is really just people then
this is possibly good news from our
perspective many of these believers
aren’t actually leaving the church it’s
merely the church that’s leaving the
building and if we’re right this means
the church is quite literally finally
breaking out of the box now I think this
could be good news for non-christians as
well after all many non-christians
actually enjoy my work and I suspect
it’s because some of the some of the
things they dislike about the church are
the exact things I criticize now the
thing I believe which my non-christian
friends may or may not believe is that
the things I take issue with are not
genuine characteristics of the
well Church they are solely products of
organized Christianity or what could be
deemed churchianity therefore if
believers continue to abandon this
man-made institutional church model and
rediscover what it means to simply be
the church instead of merely going to
church I think a lot of people outside
the church are about to be pleasantly
surprised and if so I look forward to
some of you getting to see maybe for the
first time what the church was meant to
be and how much more positively she can
impact the world
once she rediscovers her identity
however please know I didn’t share all
of this today in order to try to
convince anyone that their understanding
of church is wrong and my understanding
of church is right as a matter of fact
my goal today wasn’t even to change
anyone’s mind about whether or not they
should keep attending an institutional
church my goal was simply to change a
few people’s minds about those of us who
don’t thank you [Applause]
consequently some of the most important
people in my life basically disowned me
but I had to quit because I was having a
crisis of faith it wasn’t so much that I
was having doubts about God or doubts
about Church instead I was having doubts
about the way we do church you see the
very first churches were just small
spiritual communities of friends and
neighbors that met in ordinary homes and
they basically functioned like extended
families the churches we have today are
more institutionalized legally speaking
they are more likely to be actual
corporations than simple communities
they usually meet in special buildings
instead of people’s homes and because of
all the manmade titles and hierarchy
they often function more like companies
than families when I recognize this
disconnect I quit and I spent the next
several years searching for a spiritual
community that looked and functioned
more like the early church so why should
this matter to anyone else because as I
would later discover millions of other
believers were actually leaving the
institutional church at this same time
and I believe this has implications for
everyone regardless of your relationship
to the church of course back then I
didn’t realize I was part of what might
be considered a growing movement today
and so I felt very much alone at the
time as far as I could tell there were
almost no books no podcasts no online
forums no real-world venues where anyone
seemed to be having a discussion about
the frustrations I felt about the
institutional church model and so I
finally decided to take those
frustrations and shared them online in
the form of an animated explainer video
and cartoon blog so let’s have some fun
here’s the one of the first cartoons I
shared it was on Christmas morning of
2013 as you can see I’ve got a little
cartoon Jesus he’s holding his birthday
present which looks conspicuously like a
church building in the cartoon his
father is saying what’s wrong Jesus you
said you wanted a church
for your birthday to which Jesus is
we’re playing yeah I did but I’m having
trouble getting it out of the box yeah
more laughter other cartoons and
animated videos followed where I started
to get into more specific critiques of
the institutional Church model and
pretty quickly I began to build a
following let me give you an example of
a more specific critique so one of the
most defining characteristics of early
church gatherings was the mutual
participation of each member
basically everyone present was expected
to share something kind of like the
spiritual equivalent of a potluck dinner
yeah the church gatherings we have now
look more like what we’re doing today
a bunch of people politely listening to
a single speaker giving a presentation
and so I did a cartoon about this –
here’s a pastor about – preaches Sunday
morning sermon and he’s saying today’s
sermon is titled the priesthood of all
believers ironically I will be doing all
the talking yes don’t get me wrong it’s
not that this isn’t a fantastic format
for disseminating information a matter
of fact that’s why I’m giving this
presentation right now but genuine
church community is more than just the
sharing of spiritual information it’s
actually more about spiritual formation
and just as the word discipleship
indicates any significant spiritual
formation is going to require mutual
participation for whatever reason this
reality seems lost in most of our church
gatherings did it today as a matter of
fact whenever I asked churchgoers what
are the main reasons you go to church
one answer that always makes the list is
this to get spiritually fed now if you
haven’t heard that term don’t worry this
is church speak for sitting and
listening to a sermon much the way we
would watch a movie or watch a game
we’ve turned today’s church gatherings
into mere spectator sports
the thinking is by merely listening to
weekly sermons my spiritual life is
going to be somehow strengthened even
though most of us are going to forget
what the sermon is about two days later
now we already know that sitting and
eating won’t make us physically healthy
so why would we think something similar
would make us spiritually healthy
spiritually speaking we don’t just need
to eat we also need to exercise since
there’s very little participation in
today’s church gatherings when exactly
do I get to exercise my calling if all I
do is sit and listen to information
without any application how am I
expected to ever grow in my own unique
spiritual gifts I’m not trying to
diminish the idea of a church Shepherd
spiritually feeding the flock but is
this all that’s required for being a
good shepherd furthermore doesn’t the
institutional church model look less
like shepherding sheep and more like
raising Beal for those who don’t know
raising veal starts with selecting a
calf and putting it in a special box the
very purpose of this box is to make sure
the calf always gets fed but never gets
any exercise this calf is known as a
veal crate and it will be this box is
known as a veal crate and it will be the
calf’s whole world for its entire life
from the moment it’s placed in the crate
the calf isn’t just fed but overfed yet
it’s never allowed to exercise because
that would build up muscle which would
prevent it from becoming tender and
tasty veal one day and so by the time
the calf is ready for slaughter it has
grown completely dependent upon its box
as a matter of fact by now it is so fat
and weak that if the box has ever
removed the calf can’t even stand on its
own anymore
now I’m not insinuating all church-going
believers are spiritually weak or
immature as a matter of fact I have the
good fortune of knowing many believers
who have sincerely devoted their lives
to genuinely loving their neighbors but
the question I’m asking is this did they
learn to love this way because of the
institutional church model or in spite
of it
now returning to my story since the
questions I asked are obviously quite
provocative I was pleasantly surprised
to see that many other believers started
to respond well to my work and so after
a series of well-received cartoons and
videos I eventually published a book
titled unchurched she anity my true
Christianity without churchianity now
just you know the term on churching was
actually inspired by the early leaders
of the homeschool movement who coined
the term unschooling basically they
wanted to ‘unschool their children by
removing education from the classroom
and returning it to the to the living
room since I wanted to do something
similar with church I began using the
term on churching but on churching at
least in the way I’m using the word
isn’t about separating believers from
church community it’s actually about
separating genuine church community from
the business model of the church
corporation so anyway the book in turn
led to a podcast which then burst an
online forum and eventually a national
conference and a host of local meetups
in various cities basically all the
things I was looking for that I couldn’t
find when I first quit going to church
I’ve been blessed to be able to provide
for a few other former churchgoers like
myself and because my critiques are
merely about the church model they are
not an attack on institutional church
people my work has also opened the door
for me to guest speak at institutional
churches and conferences and best of all
it has led to me finally finding the
type of spiritual community I was
looking for now your mileage may vary
but I now experience more fellowship
that I had in the institutional Church
more diversity more gender equality and
I’m free to invest my money merely into
people instead of pouring it into
expensive church buildings and programs
which spend at least half of their
resources on mere overhead expenses
however there’s still a big challenge in
discussing these ideas with believers
who are still in the institutional
church box and I think it’s because
cognitive dissonance is almost required
to embrace an institutional church
paradigm cognitive dissonance occurs
whenever a person simultaneously holds
at least two conflicting ideas and
here’s why I say this applies to the
institutional church paradigm if you ask
a bunch of churchgoers to define the
word Church almost all of them will tell
you a church is a group of people it’s
not a place it’s not a thing even if
their church owns a building they will
likely say the church is the spiritual
family that meets in that building not
the building itself however if you ask
those same churchgoers or if you just
listen to them use the word Church in
day-to-day conversation you’ll begin to
pick up on a contradiction because they
will also say things like what time does
church start what church do you go to
look at that beautiful old wooden church
now clearly this means the word Church
is not limited to just their spiritual
family but it also applies to something
separate from themselves otherwise if
they’re only talking about their
spiritual family when they’re using the
word Church this way they are
essentially saying what time does family
start what family do you go to look at
that beautiful old wooden family so yeah
I am poking a little fun here but the
truth remains we can’t have it both ways
if the church is merely people then it
isn’t something separate from us that we
can go to now just so you know a lot of
the illustrations that I’m using in this
presentation or from a free online comic
book I created and it is titled are you
ready why Christians don’t need to go to
church now yes the title is intended to
grab people’s attention but you should
know that in this comic book I am not
advocating that believers can’t gather
or shouldn’t gather all I’m really
saying is wherever believers are there’s
the church we don’t say we go to family
because we are family
like wise believers can’t go to church
because we are the church as I mentioned
earlier millions of believers are
starting to figure this out and it’s
creating a mass exodus from the
institutional church at the moment
however like myself many of these people
who are leaving are not abandoning their
faith I refer to them as unchurched
believers but they’re also referred to
as Duns because even though they are
still believers they are done with the
institutional Church model by
conservative estimates there are now
over thirty million of us in the United
States alone to put that in perspective
that is nearly 1 in every 10 people you
pass on the street not one in every 10
believers one in every 10 people and
since the US has been exporting our
institutional brand of Christianity for
generations now the implications of this
tectonic shift in the church landscape
could prove to be pretty far-reaching
now depending on your view of church and
your attitude toward church this could
be either very grim news or potentially
exciting news for believers who function
as if church is something separate from
themselves something which must be
attended this is bad news indeed since
church attendance is rapidly dropping
Church as they know it seems to be dying
for believers like myself who believe
the church is really just people then
this is possibly good news from our
perspective many of these believers
aren’t actually leaving the church it’s
merely the church that’s leaving the
building and if we’re right this means
the church is quite literally finally
breaking out of the box now I think this
could be good news for non-christians as
well after all many non-christians
actually enjoy my work and I suspect
it’s because some of the some of the
things they dislike about the church are
the exact things I criticize now the
thing I believe which my non-christian
friends may or may not believe is that
the things I take issue with are not
genuine characteristics of the
well Church they are solely products of
organized Christianity or what could be
deemed churchianity therefore if
believers continue to abandon this
man-made institutional church model and
rediscover what it means to simply be
the church instead of merely going to
church I think a lot of people outside
the church are about to be pleasantly
surprised and if so I look forward to
some of you getting to see maybe for the
first time what the church was meant to
be and how much more positively she can
impact the world
once she rediscovers her identity
however please know I didn’t share all
of this today in order to try to
convince anyone that their understanding
of church is wrong and my understanding
of church is right as a matter of fact
my goal today wasn’t even to change
anyone’s mind about whether or not they
should keep attending an institutional
church my goal was simply to change a
few people’s minds about those of us who
don’t thank you [Applause]
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