Journeys

My journey actually began when I started to question the things my youth pastors told me. I was a good kid in a conservative evangelical church, and some things just didn't make sense to me. I was also taught not to question too loudly. Despite the cognitive dissonance, I had no interest in abandoning my faith. But I didn't know there were other ways to experience Christian community.

I grew up in church. I've been a volunteer, ordained deacon, lay leader, and ministerial staff member. I have seen how the sausage is made. After 40+ years in traditional church settings, I learned that modern institutional church is not my preferred way to interact with the Divine.

There wasn't a label available to me as a teenager in the 1980s, but I now know I have spent most of my life in the process of what is commonly referred to as deconstruction / reconstruction. (For the record, many people never reconstruct their faith, but I have been doing so almost as long as I have been deconstructing it.) I have been "done," "spiritual but not religious," and "dechurched." I am a nondenominational ex-vangelical who ran out of the church and into seminary to find a way to the Truth about God, the Church, and myself.

I am just one type of person for whom church-as-usual in a pew on Sunday morning simply is not worshipful. I am not talking about some form of consumerist preference in worship style. Traditional worship often leaves me feeling detached, distracted, and frustrated.

That's my journey.

Along the way, I have encountered others for whom typical Sunday morning fare poses more barriers than bridges to encountering God. I have met people who are queer, differently abled, neurologically diverse, struggling with mental health, socio-economically challenged, and otherwise unique who do not fit into the traditional church box.

Church attendance continues to decline in America. I think that's a sign that the boxes we have been using all these years to hold what we consider "worship" just don't work for lots of folks anymore. I am not suggesting that we need to think outside of these boxes to drive up numbers of church attenders. It's not about the numbers. Rather, we need to look closely at who is missing in our pews, especially those who still crave connection to God and a fellow believers. It's about helping everyone who desires it to have a meaningful way to engage in worship.

Who's missing in traditional worshipping spaces?

How can we innovate to provide diverse worshipping experiences where more people feel included?

That is the new journey I am embarking on this year with the congregation of The Gayton Kirk. Funded by a generous grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, we will explore the "who" and "how" together. We'll do this through book studies, guest speakers, classes, and visits to nontraditional worshipping communities.

Rachel Held Evans wrote: "This is what God's kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there's always room for more."

This year we will explore how there is always room at the table.

I hope you can join us on our journey.

Stacy