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…