This is something I wrote, pulled from a different online conversation about the "dones" (people who are still believers but are "done with church") but I thought I'd drop it here as well. Apologies for the lack of context.
"I wish I could attribute this quote, but I've forgotten... "Many people are leaving the church, not because they have lost their faith, but in order to preserve it." Might be Reggie McNeal or Brian McLaren. (What's up with those McGuys?)
Faith and community are not to be separated. But the *form* that a faith community takes can vary hugely. Like water taking on the shape of it's container.
Conventional, institutional church is a *form* that faith community has taken in recent generations. This *form* has become a barrier and a threat to the faith of many. And even to those of us born in and *native* to the form, the burden of *maintaining the form* in the midst of post-Christendom has become too heavy to bear. Hence the "dones" who are yet believers, and are "shaking off" the (current form) "dust" from their feet.
Fortunately, our most familiar form is not the only option. House churches, Missional Communities and other things that don't even have useful labels/terms for them yet.
This is the road I am taking. Part of the shape of the old form is good professional incomes for seminary graduates like me and my wife. That's not likely to be common in new forms. Oh well. So be it. Lay down your life and all that. It's what I signed up for. :)"
