“Ain’t Goin’ To Church No More,” Says Minister

Last updated on: September 17, 2014 at 2:33 pm by Mark Sandlin

“Ain’t Goin’ To Church No More,” Says Minister 2014-09-17T14:33:47-05:00 Mark Sandlin

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m rewriting the old African-American spiritual “Down By the Riverside.” (Don’t worry. It’s Okay. I’m a minister). My new version goes something like this:

Gonna lay down my robe and stole
Down by the Riverside
Down by the Riverside
Down by the Riverside
Gonna lay down my robe and stole
Down by the Riverside
Ain’t goin’ to church no more.

Yep! That’s it. This minister is walking away from church – well, for three months.

I’ve gone to church my whole life. Haven’t missed more than two Sundays in a row in…, um, I actually don’t think I’ve even missed more than two Sunday’s in a row – ever. Not even in college. As a matter of fact, while a lot of my High School youth group friends were spreading the wings of their new found freedom in college by not going to church, I was part of a traveling worship team that helped lead worship at churches all over the state. (I know, I’m a geek. Okay, a church geek. OKAY! A church nerd – of course, back then with the popularity of dc Talk, I just thought of myself as a Jesus Freak. In a lot of ways I still am – the more things change…).

A few years ago I started this blog. It began as a way for me to say things that sometimes didn’t feel safe or pastoral (or wise?) to say in church. (How sad is that, ministers not feeling like it’s alright to say things that they actually believe in church? And I say “ministers” because there’s a whole lot of them that feel that way. If you go to church, yours probably feels that way at least a little bit).

From the very beginning of thegodarticle.com, I’ve written about the many challenges the church is facing (and frequently ignoring): Can the Church Catch Up?, Keep Your Eye on the Ball, Set Adrift on a Myth, Growing Church Organically, At the Speed of Grace, and a few others. I’ve come to see that, for all the good the church does for others, it is turning a blind eye to itself. Clearly, this isn’t true of all churches but the Church as a whole is predominantly being eaten up by a variety of cancerous issues. At this point, it seems to me, those issues are not only built into the system, but are so central to the system that those who are a part of it find it very difficult to either acknowledge the issues or do anything about them if they do manage to acknowledge them.

Me? I’m a preacher. I’m all wrapped up in the system. From the inside, it is truly difficult to gain perspective. Conceptually, I get why an increasing number of younger generations are flocking away from – well, the “flock,” but frankly, just seeing and acknowledging the “hypocrisy” (among the other issues to which they correctly point as the problem with church) isn’t enough; I need to do something about it. So, it’s time to get some “perspective.”

That’s why I ain’t goin’ to church no more – for three months, that is. A week ago I started a three month long sabbatical. I decided from the very beginning that I would not darken the door of a church (with the one exception of a mission trip to the Dominican Republic with my wife’s church).

Frankly, it feels weird/odd/relaxing/disjointed/freeing/wrong/good.

Why am I not going to church? Because a great deal of the people with whom I’d like to figure out how to be in ministry don’t. They’re not heathen. They’re not un-spiritual. They’re – well, just like me, except they have Sunday’s off.

This is my hope for the next three months: I want to understand what it is that the “spiritual but not religious” like about not being in church AND I want to understand what I, a life long churchgoer, miss about not being in church. I’m also hoping that YOU will be in dialogue with me about this.

I’ll be blogging my experience in a series called “Church No More” and I hope you’ll follow along, make comments below each post and interact with me on the blog’s Facebook page. You can even start right now by leaving a message about why your either do or don’t go to church (and please don’t judge other people’s story, just leave your own). Together we can begin to understand this religious/spiritual gap a little better and figure out how the people of God may once again come together for the good of the world and not for its detriment.

I suspect this journey will open my eyes to the new thing God is constantly doing. I hope you’ll walk along with me and broaden my adventure.

Your browser does not support the audio element. var audioTag = document.createElement(‘audio’); if (!(!!(audioTag.canPlayType) && (“no” != audioTag.canPlayType(“audio/mpeg”)) && (“” != audioTag.canPlayType(“audio/mpeg”)))) { document.getElementById(‘auidoplayerhtml5podbeand915968a62794904983593533a1bbcdb’).parentNode.removeChild(document.getElementById(‘auidoplayerhtml5podbeand915968a62794904983593533a1bbcdb’)); document.write(”); } ]]>

Previous Post

June 6, 2012

Letters from the Exile - ¡Viva la Revolución!

Next Post

June 28, 2012 How The Wild Goose Festival Cured My Heebie-Jeebies

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Advent Afterlife agnostic America atheist Bible bourbon Brad Pitt Brokeness Christianity Christmas Church Civil Rights Confessions Congress Conservative Christianity Crucifixion Easter election Elections Equality Facebook Feminism Ferguson Fiction Following Jesus Foodie Gamers God GOP Gospels Gun Control Health Care Hell Heretic Heritic Holy Week Humanism immigration Inclusiveness Innovation Institutionalized Church Intellectualism Islam Jesus Job Justice Lectionary LGBT Life Love Matthew 11 Minister MLK Mother's Day Movie Review Movies Music Nones Obama peace Political Pope Francis Poverty Prayer Prison Progressive Christianity Prophetic Question Mark refugee Resistance sex shooting Sin Spirit Thanksgiving The 10% The Christian Left The Walking Dead Theology Trinity Trump Uncategorized unChristian Unemployment United States violence voting war Women's rights workers rights

Select a Month January 2017 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz