{"id":2274,"date":"2012-12-14T13:07:15","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T19:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/?p=1789"},"modified":"2012-12-14T13:07:15","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T19:07:15","slug":"an-open-letter-to-those-whove-left-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/14\/an-open-letter-to-those-whove-left-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"An Open Letter To Those Who&#039;ve Left The Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t5BMRym0c9s?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>An Open Letter&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is an open letter to everyone who has stopped being a part of the Church. Whether your exit was public and loud, or a quiet and undetected escape. Whether you ran as far and fast as you could, or you slowly walked away, or maybe someone by word or deed pushed you out&#8230; this letter is to you. We love you, we need you and we want you to come home.<\/p>\n<p>I am not trying, in anyway, to be the voice of God to you. But, I am trying desperately to be \u201ca\u201d voice for the Church&#8230; the body of broken, bruised, sinful and mistake ridden people who really only have one thing in common&#8230; Jesus forgave us. We\u2019re asking that you would do the same&#8230; would you consider forgiving us for any hurt thats been done, or mistake that was made and attempt to reconnect with fellow strugglers?<\/p>\n<p>I know we all come from different backgrounds, and our stories are as unique as our fingerprints, but please let me speak for \u201cTHE\u201d Church for a moment&#8230; whatever happened that caused our separation&#8230; it\u2019s not worth it and we need to heal.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve been hurt or offended by someone in the Church, I am sorry. The Church should be a place of love and support, but sometimes we let the letter of the law get in the way of the spirit of the law. We don\u2019t act as loving as we should, and all I can ask is that you forgive us as Christ forgave you. I can promise you this, as long as there are breathing human beings in the Church, there will be problems, but don\u2019t let that rob you of the joy of Christian community. Please forgive and come home.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve been overlooked or neglected by your Church. Please forgive us. Everyone is important, everyone matters and everyone needs a place at the table. Imperfect people are perfectly good at dropping the ball. I promise you that no one ever wanted you to feel left out, or on the outside. Sometimes we need you to let us know if you\u2019re hurting, lonely, or just feeling disconnected. I know it\u2019s hard to let others know when you\u2019re feeling that way, but believe it or not there are people in Church who would love to meet you right where you are if they just knew. So, if you have \u201cslipped through the cracks\u201d&#8230; I am so sorry. No one ever wanted you to feel anything other than valued, included and important. Please, create an opportunity for a second chance and come home.<\/p>\n<p>If you left the Church because you were bored&#8230; well, that\u2019s probably legitimate&#8230; I believe it\u2019s a sin to take the most exciting story in the world that has the opportunity to bring life into the world, and bore people to death with it. But, if boredom is what derailed you then let me set a couple of questions in front of you: First, isn\u2019t truth still truth, even if it\u2019s boring? You can\u2019t give up on the Message, just because the messengers are an all natural cure for insomnia. Second, if the Church is boring, please take that as your excuse to fix it! Get in the children\u2019s program and make learning the Word fun for the next generation, find a spot in the leadership to positively make some changes from within, ask some of the old school gatekeepers, \u201cWhat do we have to do to reach your grandchildren?\u2019 and just see that rock and a hard place start to slide like tectonic plates and then feel the earthquake as Church becomes&#8230; dare we say it&#8230; fun! If you walked away because Church was just bad, we need you to make it better, please come home.<\/p>\n<p>If your life changed drastically, and the Church just didn\u2019t seem to care, I want you to know, the truth is we\u2019re desperate to meet you where you are. A divorce can make you feel like you\u2019ve lost everything, but don\u2019t believe the lie! God says, \u201cNever will I leave, never will I forsake you.\u201d Neither should your Church. Moving to a new city often makes you feel completely unstable, and finding a Church like your old one is almost impossible. Well, that\u2019s actually true, but there\u2019s good news&#8230; the people are different, the music\u2019s not even close, and you really loved your old preacher, but despite all that&#8230; Jesus is still the same! Sometimes we feel like we\u2019ve just outgrown the Church&#8230; we went when we were kids, or we used to be in the youth group, or I liked my old Sunday School class. So, you just kind of drifted away and leaving Church&#8230; \u201cjust happened\u201d&#8230; Those were good days, but they aren\u2019t gone&#8230; they just prepared you for what\u2019s next. You have grown, but you haven\u2019t outgrown God. Whatever has changed, remember He is the same yesterday, today and forever&#8230; we love you, please come home.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe you left Church because you have struggled with your faith. Doubts, questions and fears have just made it easier to move on, and faith to you is now just a \u201cpersonal\u201d issue, if it\u2019s anything at all. C\u2019mon, let\u2019s get real for a moment. The reason it\u2019s called faith, is because it can\u2019t be proved. Part of the reality of faith is the struggle&#8230; I mean, what did God name His people: Israel, right? You know what that word means don\u2019t you&#8230;? Israel means \u201cwrestles with God.\u201d Questions, doubts and the struggle should be embraced in the Church&#8230; they are what make us strong enough to survive. In fact, you might have a specific theological issue. Something that you heard taught you don\u2019t like, a teaching that runs counter to culture that\u2019s difficult to embrace, or a legitimate question that you can\u2019t seem to get an answer to&#8230; please, stay in the game and wrestle with God and his people until you find peace. Walking away will never answer the question. Imagine that your faith is a boat on the water that\u2019s sinking&#8230; diving overboard is not going to fix anything. The only thing that makes sense is to stay in the boat and bail water. So, if you and the Church aren\u2019t on speaking terms anymore because of \u201cthe struggle\u201d&#8230; please, climb back up in the boat and start bailing water. We need you, come home.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe your out of the Church because \u201cYou\u2019ve had it up to here.\u201d Organized religion, hypocrits, the hyper-religious, or the inward-focused, naval gazing culture of the modern Church just turn you off. Well, here we go&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the only thing worse than organized religion is disorganized religion<\/li>\n<li>hypocrits go to WalMart, but we\u2019ve learned to deal with them<\/li>\n<li>sure there are hyper-religious people in the Church, and when you leave they win&#8230; we can\u2019t have that now can we<\/li>\n<li>and it\u2019s true that the Church has gotten a reputation for big buildings, big personalities and big budgets&#8230; so, why don\u2019t you jump into Church and help start a grass roots movement where we make Jesus the Rock Star of the Church and remember that the Church isn\u2019t a building, or an organization&#8230; it\u2019s the people&#8230; we are the Church, and we need you&#8230; please come home<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Obviously, I can\u2019t speak to every hurt and every concern felt by everyone, but I can say this: We love you&#8230; we want you&#8230; we need you&#8230; please consider forgiving, trying again, just letting it go and coming home.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re the Church, and we\u2019re not the same without you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Open Letter&#8230; This is an open letter to everyone who has stopped being a part of the Church. Whether your exit was public and loud, or a quiet and undetected escape. Whether you ran as far and fast as you could, or you slowly walked away, or maybe someone by word or deed pushed &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/14\/an-open-letter-to-those-whove-left-the-church\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;An Open Letter To Those Who&#039;ve Left The Church&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}