Detoxing From Church
By Jason Zahariades
Beginning the Process
Back in February, as Mark and I were praying and talking about beginning a
missional community, I emailed a guy on the other side of the US who had already
begun one of these communities. Here are a couple of things he said in our
correspondences.
“Here’s a strong statement: most evangelicals, including Vineyard people, are
addicted to church culture. Take away their Sunday service, their bible studies,
prayer meetings, and five-song worship teams and they start having withdrawals
quickly. I think that it is a necessary part of this process to have a detox time… I
would suggest a time of at least a year of not doing the ‘normal’ church stuff. For us,
during that time of detachment we only did a few things together – ask hard
questions and eat. Those were our corporate disciplines.”
In another email he reinforced the point:
“Let me reiterate from my last email that one of the most beneficial things you
might do is take a break from all things church for a while. This may seem really
counterproductive, especially when you start having people wanting to be a part of
your community immediately. But if your aim is to get people to begin thinking outside
the bounds of cultural Christianity, some significantly radical action is required.”
When I first read these comments, I knew he was stating something profound.
What I didn’t anticipate was the extent of my own addiction to the contemporary
church and the painful detox process I would experience. What I’m coming face to
face with through the process is the non-authenticity and impotence of my own faith.
Let me explain…