8 Friends. All under the age of 25. Former staff members and leaders in churches and denominational offices. A self-employed graphic designer, a party planner, a salesman, a violinist, a horse whisperer, a banker, a photographer, a convenience store manager, a nurse, a car dealer employee, and a PHD candiate. Bloggers, friends, and spouses. They all tell the story of how they walked away from the traditional models of church and how they are now exploring alternative models of community and practice.
This is our attempt at sharing our stories. Beyond the statistics and figures. Beyond George Barna’s book, Revolution, with pseudo names. We have nothing more than real stories and real experiences that tell of how we walked away, were forced out, or fired. Some of our stories our painful and we still need time to heal the wounds as we “detox”. Some of our stories our hopeful as we have found alternative ways to live the way of Jesus in our world.
This is neither an attempt at being critical or to minimize the role and value that many of the traditional models of church still have and play in God’s economy. These are simply the faces behind the stats, that tell us that young people are leaving the church at a fairly rapid rate. At a time in history when many pastors and church leaders are bemoaning and concerned with the loss of young people in their congregations . . . we . . . the young, creative, gifted, and called twenty-somethings . . . have been pushed to the margins. We now stand on the outside looking in at a time when the church most needs us.
We hope you enjoyed this little experiment. I want to thank all of my good friends who took some time to share with us their stories and guest blogged on my site. You should check out each and everyone of their sites. They are all great bloggers and worth following.
Leslie. Nick. Eric. Anna. Tank. Jessica. D10.
Enjoy.
Tags: Exodus Papers, Revolution, George Barna, Emerging Church, Megachurches, House Church
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20 Comments
You guys really have something here. Could be the makings of something bigger…? At any rate, thanks so much for all your honesty!
Peace,
Jamie
I’m liking the yellow font.
you being sarcastic? or serious? i take my web colors seriously. its more of a burnt orange. but i got some comments about the red being to hard to read.
Thanks for running this series Mr Josh. I do appreciate you and the folk who participated!
well, I am never for any color called burnt orange, but I was serious. Maybe you should make it a ‘dark yellow’ instead of a ‘burnt orange’.
Josh, there is a typo in the .pdf version. In Erics section the heading reads http://www.fraggeformysins.com. I think its fragged, no?
Thanks Joe.
That picture of me and the pony kills me. I just went down and fed them pwnies and horsies just an hour ago. Thanks for giving us a shot to share some thoughts.
excellent series indeed. i waited until all posts were up so i could read it in one big chunk. cheers to everyone’s honesty, bravery and sense of humour.
i’ve been there too, josh. if i hadn’t been given a chance to be a part of something huge at this church i’m at in new orleans, i don’t know where i’d be… or what i’d be doing… but it wouldn’t be this.
thanks for all the feedback guys. and for pointing out the typos. i’ve fixed those and everything is updated.
This is great…I really appreciate it.
i am nurse? cool.
you’re not a nurse? what are you? i’ve got to be accurate or i’m no better than fox.
i’m just the receptionist, in fact there aren’t even any nurses in the clinic i work at, just nuclear technicians … i could be considered a nuclear technician’s assistant, that’s sounds cooler than recpetionist
cool layout. and quite refreshing to read something online without a lot of hyperlinks.
also good to hear stories of real people.
I’m not saying the last comment wasn’t from the TSK, but he is on a blogging fast this month, and he didn’t put the correct URL.
tank,
first of all, i was suprised and suspicious as you.
but the comment was made at 5:30 am. he’s messing around with his domains lately. and it has to be him because he thinks pdf’s are the way of the future. and hates busy things. you’d know this if you blog stalked like i did.
im still not buying it.
Frodo: I wish this fate had never come to me, Gandalf.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the fate that is given to us.
Thanks for sharing your stories. Appreciate the honesty.
5 Trackbacks
[...] Josh Brown has posted this series on his blog. If you don’t know why people are leaving the church, here are eight reasons. If you don’t know why there are so few young leaders rising in the church, here are eight reasons. If you want to know one of the biggest reasons there is such a thing as the emerging church, here are eight stories that will explain it. Read them. Learn from them. And don’t let the same thing happen in your church. (Click here for the PDF format.) [...]
[...] The Exodus Papers (pdf version now available):8 Friends. All under the age of 25. Former staff members and leaders in churches and denominational offices. A self-employed graphic designer, a party planner, a salesman, a violinist, a horse whisperer, a banker, a photographer, a convenience store manager, a nurse, a car dealer employee, and a PHD candidate. Bloggers, friends, and spouses. They all tell the story of how they walked away from the traditional models of church and how they are now exploring alternative models of community and practice.This is really good, and really important. [...]
[...] Check out the Exodus papers over at IAmJoshBrown (found via Joshua Case). Reading these accounts (of people who were actively involved in church ministry) vividly brought back a lot of memories. It really shouldn’t surprise us that given with the levels of conflict and resistance to change on non-essential factors of church life, many are simply seeking to develop their faith outside the church. [...]
[...] Paul uses the word “pattern”. In many church growth movements you hear about models. It makes me think of model air planes as a kid or cake pans. You don’t have much flexibility (unless you force parts to fit…not that I did that…) with models. You can add decorative elements, but structurally it’s the same. A pattern is different. Church is a way of living, a pattern. This is playing out as people are not coming (or leaving) institutional church. Here are some individuals thoughts on what church is and what it’s not: The Exodus Papers. Posted by Mike Filed in church, scripture [...]
[...] the way, you might also like to meet Josh Brown, who after his own exodus calls the corruption of Christianity “the religious industrial [...]