Why I Quit Church! And Started Attending Love Feasts

Dear DOs, I thought I might share with you a booklet we're passing out in our neighborhoods. Lynn

Dear Friend,

You’re invited to attend a Love Feast.

Please forgive me for being a bit presumptuous. Though in all likelihood we’ve never met, I call you ‘friend.’

Please read the pamphlet with care. And perhaps we will become friends.

Lynn Ridenhour

Why I Quit Church!

And Started Attending Love Feasts

by Lynn Ridenhour

"I used to attend a very good church. Friendly, growing. With a minister loved by even the worst grouch. But though it was a model church in many ways, nothing much ever happened inside me. Their punctual ‘worship’ services were actually a warmhearted lecture series, plus songs and offering. Almost never was I allowed to participate, except as the 387^th voice in the singing. If I’d never shown up, my absence would have been like a missing spoonful of sand from the Arabian Desert. Without me, not one syllable would have changed—and that’s about how significant I felt. Fact is, that’s how significant I was. So I drifted away." --The Open House, p.21, James H. Rutz

"….So I drifted away…"

I find the above statement amazingly true for many of us. I also find it to be an amazingly sensitive statement. I believe many of us could have uttered it. I know I could. Which leads to the inevitable….

Why I Quit Church*

(credit given to James Rutz for much of the below content (The Open Church, pp.44-74).

Listen, and I’ll tell you a shocking fact about yourself, something you never knew.

You were kidnapped as a small child, and no one ever told you about it.

You were born into a wealthy and loving family where your potential in life was awesome indeed. You lived in a huge mansion, and all the servants were anxious to help you with anything you needed. Your thoughts were welcomed, your ideas treasured, your future boundless.

With your vast resources, you could easily have become an inspiration to everyone, the sort of person poets write about. You’d have had few of the limitations you struggle with today, and you could have helped the world immensely.

But alas, you were spirited away to live with a poor and eccentric family of kid-swipers who took a liking to you. They lived at the end of a dead end road in a big old house that never knew an architect, just a series of single-minded occupants who tacked on whatever additions they need at the time.

They were a large and friendly family that took decent care of you, but in a stifling way. The most exciting thing that ever happened to you was watching the tar come up through the cracks in the street on a hot day. They meant well, but the main rule in the house was, "Behave yourself and be quiet!" Worst of all, they’ve kept you in the dark about your real identity to this day.

It’s hard to be mad at folks you love—especially those who adopted and raised you, but then it’s hard not to be mad when you think of what’s happened to you:

	Your self-image has been miniaturized.
	You’ve been cut off from your brothers and sisters.
	Your potential has been shrunk dramatically.
	Your role in history may be headed for the wastebasket.
	You’ve lost your past, your future, and your birthright.
	A lot of your time and money was wasted.
	And they’ve convinced you that all this was done for your own good!

It’s hard not to be angry.

Now, the reason you don’t remember any of this is that it occurred right after you were born…but of course I’m talking about your new birth, your spiritual birth into the great and magnificent family of God, where freedom is the rule and only Jesus Christ is Lord.

As a member of that family, you had all the rights and privileges of royalty, such as:

	Servants!—millions of brothers and sisters worldwide, dedicated to loving and serving you day and night.
	High Standing—instant respect and a listening ear from everyone. No one but the Lord Himself outranking you!
	Personal Impact—powerful involvement in others’ lives. Heart to heart, life-changing sharing with many people.

And the nice family of schleps that kidnapped you—well, I’m afraid that was the Institutional Church, a warm-hearted but professionally run organization that froze into a closed form by the end of the Fourth Century.

At their gatherings, you had the right to remain silent, and not a whole lot more. Your royalty was never recognized. You were treated amiably, but like a commoner. Well, actually, the term they used was "layman."

Only one problem with that. You’re not a layman or laywoman. You’re royalty, a child of the King, and don’t you ever forget it! (The Open House, pp.29-31).

O, my! James Rutz has said a mouthful. Without mincing words.

"…You’re royalty…and don’t you ever forget it!"

Brother Rutz paints a startling picture…

You and I are not free anymore. Not even in Church.

According to Rutz, it’s time to admit the shocking truth: we Christians lost three of our main freedoms eighteen centuries ago. Just gave them away.

Ever since, ordinary pew warmers like you and me have been living in a spiritual straitjacket. The worst part is—we think this is the way we’re supposed to live.

Between AD 313 & 400, the church fell apart. Until then, it had been an unstoppable dynamo—a joyful family where everyone played a part in every meeting. But then we began to do things like:

Put up buildings. We very quickly surrendered the warmth of living room fellowship and worship for anonymous ceremonies in large sanctuaries where sharing was next to impossible—and thus abandoned.
Hire strangers to do the talking for us on Sundays. This was a radical, unbiblical change—and a disaster. We collapsed into an audience, and we’ve never recovered.

No one can talk in church any more, even though the New Testament gives us many commands on what we must do when we get together, such as:

encourage one another
admonish one another
bear one another’s burdens.

Ironically, the one hour we all meet is the one hour of the week we aren’t allowed to obey any of these commands! If you doubt me, try this:

During a quiet moment next Sunday morning, stand up and say, "Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your Son. You mean more to me than life itself!" You’ll soon find that sort of outburst is strictly forbidden. You just aren’t on the program.

In the New Testament, every believer was free to take part in the meetings. But we lost that freedom to share and worship. The results? 1700 years of spectator Christianity is headed toward collapse.

I believe it could happen in our lifetime. The Institutional Church will collapse.

Here’s an interesting statistic. According to a major research project conducted by George Gallup, Jr., for 30 denominations and religious organizations, a significant number of "unchurched" Americans feel there is not enough emphasis on spiritual experiences in the churches.

At a news conference at the Interchurch Center, the pollster commented that "more of the unchurched than the churched have had a sudden religious experience. They’re all charged up with no place to go."

"…all charged up with no place to go…"

I find that incredible. And sad.

It’s a sad day when those who don’t attend church feel closer to the Lord than those who do attend. I remember my wife once saying, "Hon, I almost hate to say this but I get along better around sinners than I do Christians."

There’s a Bible story that goes like this. Once upon a time the sinners had to wake up the saint of God (Jonah was asleep) and tell him what was going on, tell him what God was doing (Jonah 1:6). "Wake up, Jonah," cried the sinners, "the ship’s going down."

The Word of the Lord, believe it or not, came through the mouth of sinners. God’s chosen mouthpiece was out of touch with the reality of the situation.

What sad parallels. We’re there again, Church.

Did you know—about one of every five unchurched persons who indicated they had "problems" with churches checked a statement, which said, "I wanted deeper spiritual meaning than I found in the church."

How did we get to where we are? And where do we go from here?

Let me give you a brief layman’s (though I don’t like the word) point of view. Perhaps we should take a moment and bury the term "layman" once and for all. Rutz is absolutely correct. The term needs "wiping out." For four reasons. The term is:

1. Unscriptural. The Greek word for laity is "laos," and it simply means "people." It has nothing to do with not being in the ministry. Interestingly, Jesus referred to the final church of this present age as the "church of the Laodiceans" (Rev.3:14), which means "church of the people."

The Lord put his finger on it, as He usually does. Churches today are run like businesses, like corporations. They have their agendas, their programs, their 5-year business plans, and their ledger sheets. Like IBM, Chrysler, and AT&T, most churches have a bottom line.

Take the church at Laodicea.

Jesus was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t in the church. He was on the outside looking in (Rev.3:20). Actually, he was standing on the outside, knocking, not wanting in but calling His sheep out. Those with ears to hear.

Another thing: Jesus made mention of the "deeds" and the "doctrine" of the "Nicolaitans" (Rev.2:6,15), "…which I also hate." Those are strong words. The word "Nicolaitans’ is where we get our English word "laity." Jesus hated that doctrine, the doctrine that distinguished clergy from laity. It’s unscriptural. The term "layman" is:

2) Dead wrong. If you’re an earnest Christian, you have a ministry (I Cor.12:7,11,13,27). The term is:

3) Negative. It defines you by what you aren’t. And, it’s…

4) Offensive. The connotations of layman are in the same ballpark as peon, peasant, amateur, yokel and the great unwashed.

"Layman" has nothing to do with ministry, or the lack of one.

To be exact, a ministry is simply the sphere in which you exercise your gifts. And you do have a spiritual gift. Your gift makes room for your ministry. You do have a ministry.

Let’s turn our attention now to…

A Brief Church History Overview

To be brutally honest, none of the following "church" practices has any root in scripture:

church buildings, church names, pews, sermons, choirs, the 11 am starting time, stained glass windows, steeples, high vaulted ceilings, liturgies and rituals in church worship, costumed clergy, seminaries, children named after "saints," dressing up for church, denominations, funerals, the modern pastoral concept, our fixation on doctrine to the exclusion of other matters—and the list goes on.

When I say—I quit church! I mean—I quit these things. All of the above practices either came after Constantine or from the Reformation. Too often these practices are divisive. Unnecessary. And in the way of the Spirit. Take, for example, our erecting…

Church Buildings

As innocent as it may sound, probably one of our biggest blunders. When the world looks on and sees over 1,000 church buildings in our town of KC—some of them no more than 100 feet apart—what’s the signal we Christians are giving out?

If you guys can’t get along, I’m not so sure you have what I’m looking for.

Recent archeological studies have demonstrated—until Constantine, there was no such thing as a church building or "Christian" architecture. That which we know of the Christian faith was a living room movement.

Today there is a phenomenal worldwide movement leading people back to the "cell church." Millions are participating. The conviction is—the life of the church is discovered in it cell, not in a building.

As said, the principle is that all Christians are ministers, that there is no professional clergy hired to do the work of the ministry. That the Spirit of the resurrected Lord leads the worship. Open worship (praising God), open sharing (building up each other), and open ministry (serving others in the church and the world) are experienced.

It bears repeating, around 300 AD the church made one of the worst blunders in her short-lived history. We voluntarily decided to give up the three key freedoms that powered the early church to success:

open worship,
open sharing
open ministry.

It’s seventeen hundred years later and we’ve not recovered since. What about…

Church Names

Another blunder.

Of course, we know church names (denominations) came out of the Reformation. Denominations in the sight of God are a new thing and ought not be. They’re primarily a result of our fixation on doctrine. Today we have 23,000 denominations, each with its own pet doctrines. Lord, forgive us. Then what about those awful…

Pews

Believe it or not, the Catholics thought of them. Constantine had forgotten to invent the pew. In fact, trying to figure out whether to sit on the cold floor or stand throughout the whole meeting (as the pagans did across the street) caused one of the great debates and marked differences between the Eastern Church and the Western Church. The Italians dragged in benches (and grew!); the Greeks stood up (and didn’t grow). Then what about the…

Sermon

Surely the sermon is in the Bible.

No it’s not.

Not as we know it today. There were messages given in the Bible, messages that flowed from the heart and that sprang from the situation at hand. Messages from heaven that transmitted a specific Word of the Lord to an individual or group of individuals. A "thus saith the Lord" usually spoken by a prophet, or one of the five-fold ministers (Eph.4:11).

That’s different. Messages are definitely not sermons.

Today’s modern sermonics, homiletics, hermeneutics, rhetoric and oratory, do not find their origins in the first century prophets, but in the Graeco-Roman tradition of rhetoric. The sermon comes from the gift of rhetoric. From Greece. Not heaven.

Today’s sermon was introduced by John Chrysostom. With his polished, professional puylpiteerism, Chrysostom was a student of rhetoric. His name means "Golden-Mouth." His Greek oratorical skills replaced the Christian practice of the prophet. Heaven is silent these days in most church buildings. And where’d we get that…

Pulpit

Luther got it for us.

High up on one of the pillars of the church was a little rostrum, or pulpit, which the Catholic priest had climbed up to by means of a circular staircase to read dutifully the weekly announcements to the faithful flock below.

Luther had one of those high pulpits placed in the front and center of the building where the altar had been. And so was born the mighty Protestant pulpit—a device that centralized and monopolized sharing and communication, leaving it strictly in the hands of paid employees with professional training—while we laymen sit silently in the pews, gazing upwardly as the Golden Mouths speak. But what about our…

Order of Worship

Surely the 11 am worship hour is inspired. No it’s not. But surely the opening song, prayer, three songs, announcements, prayer, offertory, song, sermon, benediction—our order of worship is from God.

No it’s not. You won’t find an "order of worship" in the Bible. Martin Luther gave us that too.

By the way, have you ever wondered why we went to church on Sunday mornings at 11 am? (I’m speaking for most Protestants.) Because Luther could stay out later on Saturday night and drink beer. It gave him more time to sober up from the late-night Bierfests. Luther initially began his services at dawn; then moved them back to 9 am, then 10 am, and finally, the last possible hour before lunch—11 am. Have you ever wondered why we…

Dressed Up

Why do we "dress up" for Sunday morning worship?

Because Constantine and his other dignitaries had a habit of popping in several of the church buildings. Fancy church buildings were the one place that royalty mixed with common folks. It simply wouldn’t do to bump into a prince or contessa in our grubby work clothes. Had to dress up for Constantine. Surely there’s nothing wrong with…

Meeting on Sunday

Around the time of Constantine, the state decreed that the first day of the week would be a holiday to emphasize the homogeneous nature of the new pagan/Christian religion.

The idea was to encourage pagans to observe it along with Christians. Rather than calling it "the Lord’s Day," they retained one of the names that had been used for a couple of centuries, dies solis, the "day of the Sun." Pagans were used to worshipping the Sun, not Jehovah, so the state gave preference to them.

To this day, for the most part we pay unknowing homage to the Sun on "Sun…day," along with the Moon on Monday, plus a mini-pantheon of Norse, Teutonic, Germanic, and Roman gods: Tiu, Woden, Thor, Frigg, and Saturn. That about covers every god on every day of the week.

Surely there’s nothing wrong with…

Stained Glass Windows, Steeples, and Vaulted Ceilings

Plato, not Christ, gave us our high church ceilings. Plato was big on "space and color," as they relate to man’s upward spiritual striving toward the "touch with the sublime."

We could continue on with our list of "add ons." But you get the picture. Can the Lord move in a traditional church? Of course. God can move by His Spirit anywhere. He’s God. He can move in a "high church" or "low church." Or no church. With or without liturgy. On a street corner or in the middle of Mass. In a pub or a bar.

Are any of the above traditions biblical? No. Here’s the rub: so many of us grew up thinking these traditions were "gospel." I did. A few of us, however, are a bit weary wading through all the extra baggage. Do we condemn those who still want to carry the baggage? Of course not. Are we so arrogant to suppose we have a corner on the truth? We pray not. Are we anti-establishment? For those believers who are at home within the walls of institutional Christianity, we bless you, we pray for you, and desire God’s best for you. For those looking elsewhere, with Christian charity we extend to you…

An Open Invitation

You’re invited to our home. We mean that.

We’re not a church. We don’t have a name. We have no hidden agenda. We meet for encouragement and support. Everyone’s welcome. There’s nothing to join. We’re not of any particular denomination or sect. And we’re certainly not a cult. We don’t care what you believe. That is, we’re not of any particular creed. We have no creed.

We’re not, as said, on a crusade. We haven’t burned any steeples or crosses lately. We’re not campaigning against organized religion. We’re simply convinced—God can be approached and met without all the extra baggage.

Our gatherings are very informal. Dress is casual. We make a conscious effort to drop all labels and practice unconditional acceptance. Some of us are married with traditional families; others of us are single parents with not so traditional families. Some of us are old; some of us are young. Some of us are more dysfunctional than others. But all of us are striving to love.

Why do we meet?

For encouragement and friendship. And to hear from heaven.

And we would love for you to come. We call our gatherings "Love Feasts" (Jude verse 12). Please feel free to contact one of our team leaders listed below.

His Blessings,

Lynn Ridenhour

Team Leaders:

Tim & Barb Davis

Here are directions to our house:

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Roy & Gina Browne

Directions to our house:

<snip>

Lynn & Linda Ridenhour

Directions to our house:

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Why I Quit Church*

As a member of that family, you had all the rights and privileges of royalty, such as:

You and I are not free anymore. Not even in Church.

A Brief Church History Overview

Church Buildings

Church Names

Pews

Sermon

Pulpit

Order of Worship

Dressed Up

Meeting on Sunday

Stained Glass Windows, Steeples, and Vaulted Ceilings

An Open Invitation

Preface Comment

Flier Introduction

Follow-up / Feedback

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