Page 3795 – Christianity Today (2024)

(Editor’s note: An article in our e-mail newsletter, Leadership Weekly, by pastor Chad Hall, “Six Ways I Quit Church,” drew lots of response. Many cheered. Many jeered. Many shook their heads in disbelief. And many wrote to us. Here are some of their many replies. )

Excellent article! How can we be good fishers of people if we don’t know what bait they’re biting these days? This will really help me in my sermons, as well as in my encouragement of others!

Debbie Sandifer

I’m not believing my eyes. My heart truly goes out to this minister. Somewhere along the line, he’s “missed the boat. ” … . Sometimes our walk with God is trying, but we’re not to give up, only persevere. The whole point in not forsaking the fellowshipping of our brothers and sisters in Christ is to continue in God’s love, edifying one another.

JCL

While I appreciate Chad’s desire to “think like a fish” I believe his approach to ministry not only gets him off the boat and into the water but to a place where his life may actually begin to “smell like a fish. “

The church is where God has designed that Christians grow up into more Christlikeness. If Chad is in the water rather than on the boat (where fish are supposed to be taken from the water) how is he becoming more like the master caster himself, Jesus Christ? More importantly, who is influencing whom?I would like to know how many “fish” Chad caught when he was in the water. I have been fishing a number of time and one thing I’ve realized is that once you get out of the boat and into the water, your fishing is over.

Like Chad, I believe the church is irrelevant for the most part to the majority of our society. Churches have to get out of a maintenance and into a ministry mode if we are to impact our world for the kingdom. However, when the boat isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing (i. e. , catching fish) we don’t ‘abandon ship’ and slip overboard into the churning sea.

That’s not the way to catch fish.

The issue I believe is to change life on board the boat so that the aim is to catch fish rather than take a cruise. The captain needs to be like the captain in the movie Jaws who is necessary, will sacrifice the boat in order to catch his prize. Likewise, it only takes a few folks on the charter to haul in a couple of fish before most of the others on board reach for their poles and get a line over the side.

Bob Brueggen, Maplewood, Minnesota

This is an excellent article and I commend you for publishing it. The best thing that could happen to a pastor is being in the work place for at least two years, making a living like everyone else and experiencing what living in the real world is really like.

After I graduated from seminary I worked for 6 years as a juvenile probation officer and then went into church ministry full time. The real world experience has provided me with ministry understanding and success with people, rather than idealized theology and unrealistic Biblical teaching and application.

Each graduating student that asks for advice is always met with the favorite statement of “ride along in a police squad car at least once every three months so that your sermons will be fresh and based in reality. “

Second, get a life outside of the church, have a hobby that is totally immersed with lost people and their life styles. Motorcycles, flying, dirt bikes, local softball team, ice hockey, woodworking club, anything that is legal and moral, just get into their lives. Don’t just visit and then run a retreat to the church and hide but really learn about life.

Third, serve as a volunteer chaplain in the county hospital and work the emergency room on Friday and Saturday nights. This will make or break you when the reality of how people live and die meets your church encrusted theology.

Bob Kaumeyer, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas

I was wondering if you would encourage people that are struggling with their faith to spend time in the mosh pits, after all bad company corrupts good morals. I think you are on to some good ideas but I do believe you might of went a little overboard with the mosh pit. We might step away from the Church but we never want to pull are ourselves that far from God. Daily we need to seek Him. I agree that we can get way over-churched. But we need to keep God in the center of our life. I am sure that you believe that but it just did not come across that way

Tom

I loved the article on quitting church. I am a parishioner. I used to be a very busy, involved parishioner, but realized I was spending more and more time trying to decode leadership politics in the church than I was in ministry. So I quit. I still appear on Sundays with my family but look forward to the time in the nursery talking with whomever may be in there that week. I know that one day I may re-enter mainstream church life again. At one time I was taking theology courses. I love theology, but the church thing wears me out … It is the same in all denominations. I know I have faith, I just don’t have a church to grow it in.

Church to me has become a make work project for do gooders. That isn’t enough for me.

I want to feel the power of God flowing through the veins and arteries of the body of Christ, with the heart of Christ pumping in the body, giving love and passion and meaning to everything we do. I want to see Christians not afraid to ask questions and really think for themselves. I want to see the body come into maturity, not in a gaudy, cheesy way, but in strong quiet dignity. I want preachers to rely more on the power of the Holy Spirit and less on their own powers of persuasion.

Thank you for this opportunity to express myself.

Miriam Bartley

I am a ministry student and … this article has hit home with me, because I see … (pastors) everyday behind a desk, working on sermons, etc and not too much out in the public. I have also gotten a part time job, just to keep me out in the public and see others outside our church. That small job means a lot and I do see a lot of hurts, but also a lot of happiness. It has given me several opportunities to witness to those I work with. Thank you for the article.

Kim

How sad that in a journal devoted to church leadership an article would be encouraging people to “just quit. ” No thanks. I understand the need to connect with the unchurched. I also understand that one of the best ways to do that is to be open to new experiences. However, I don’t think there is anything worthwhile in attending a KISS concert or simply skipping out on worship. The Body of Christ needs each other—desperately.

If we haven’t figured out that our refreshing and revitalization comes, not from skipping church, but in corporate worship, we’ve got a L-O-N-G way to go. When we consider the virtue of a sabbatical, we also must guard against the carnal nature to just quit. A Sabbath rest is not about quitting, it is about redirecting our focus on the Lord.

Greg, LaHarpe, Illinois

Dear Chad:

What an exciting and encouraging article!!! Bravo, Brother!

My husband and I recently “quit church” too! And we believe it was for all the RIGHT reasons! We were first very frustrated and disheartened by the hypocrisy and complacency in the church we’ve attended for years. There was no fire or passion for the REAL world, the “sinners” who are lost. Considering almost all of both our families & friends are those kind of “sinners”, needless to say, our burden for the lost is heavy. While attending a refreshing and uplifting ministry of music by a band we literally found by accident … we were reunited with our Lord & Savior face-to-face! And how exciting! We, and several others from the “old” church were tired of “playing church. ” Going through the motions because we are ‘supposed’ to. And we were (are) hungering for opportunities to REACH IN to a hurting world and step OUT of the “comfy couch club” AKA the “Holy Huddle. ” So we took a NEW step in aNEW direction at a NEW church! And Jesus is there!

But not only that, this summer, and for the first time in my 20 year walk with Christ, we have hooky-ed from church! And it’s felt good! We have eaten brunch with the sinners & tax evaders on Sun. morning. We have helped some heathen friends in their moments of need, which just happened to be on a Sun. morning. We have spent countless hours sharing the gospel and what Christ-like living is all about, over Sun. morning coffee, and we have made our home a safe haven for people & teens in need! We’ve also been freed of the bondage of “guilt giving” and we ONLY give when and IF we are both in agreement that God is leading us! So we’ve helped the poor with our abundance of pennies, we’ve ordered a magazine subscription for missionaries, and we’ve sponsored a teen on route to the UK this month! None of these things measure up to the “traditional Christian”, but hey, we’re radical rebels, on fire to do God’s work TODAY! …

So we swim against the flow, but He leads the way! Romans 12:2 Fishers of men!

M&M Phillips, Melrose, Ontario, Canada.

The first five are fine, the sixth is just plan wrong.

Frank P. Visco

OK, he quit and attended Bedside Baptist and the Bagel Church. When did he unquit and why?

Larry the quitter, Belleville, Ontario

Your advice moves quickly beyond “thinking like a fish” into “becoming like a fish. ” Consider the following reasoning. Do you really want to be like a fish, even temporarily?If you extend your logic, you will find yourself in a different kingdom than the one you now are in. What are the consequences? Do you have a spouse?Not in fish world, it’s not monogamous. Do you enjoy the protection of law and order? Watch out for the shark on your left. What about the arts?The masterpieces are done by those you just left (Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Bach and Handel). Perhaps you are in to ‘found art.

You are a pastor and it is a good thing to understand your flock; what they are experiencing, the challenges do they face, what are the struggles they deal with. But follow your logic and your counsel a bit farther. Surely you have liars in your congregation. Must you become a liar to counsel a liar? (Not recommended for a coach/counselor. ) Perhaps you have adulterers in your congregation. Should you become an adulterer? What about murders? You get my point?

Let’s consider the other side of the coin. Perhaps you have dancers in your congregation. Would you advise a highly skilled ballet dancer to purposely mess up a performance to make sure they do not think too highly of themselves or become out of place with the remaining dancers? Is it wise coaching to tell our children, “don’t be like that superstar athlete because they cannot relate to the rest of the team. Aspire to be mediocre. Blend in with all the rest of the players. “

Aspiring NOT to be like a fish but learning to catch them,

Mike Robinson

Hi, I am a fellow pastor of a called-out community of friends of Jesus—a local ecclesia/church part on the one, holy, catholic, apostolic ecclesia/church—here in Bloemfontein, South Africa called Free Church International. I am happily married with 3 children.

While appreciating Chad your honesty and transparency, that for you a four-year sojourn among the fish was for you a necessary life-changing experience and valuing and learning from you the vital lessons learnt, I do have some from the heart concerns. Here they are:

Church is meant to be a real living relationship/friendship in Jesus with a community of friends who also trust, love and obey Jesus not just a Sunday meeting. Did you stop being in friendship with other believers for four years or just stop attending a Sunday meeting?

How does this tie up with the counsel of Scripture such as Heb 10:24-25 and the relational one another commands and pattern of together in Christ Jesus being the church who really love, care, pray … one another to the extent it flows out to the lost fish. (Hey, I know that what should be and the reality of what is can be like virtual reality. )

A question?Was there not other way of learning to love and understand lost fish without giving up on friendship with your family of found fish (assuming your quitting church was more than just not attending a Sunday meeting). In other words was there not some wiser way of developing an understanding and heart for the lost without giving up on being part of authentic community of friends of Jesus?

What about the down side during your 4 year absence… . what if any negative effects did it have on you, your family, your relationship with the Lord?

Lastly whilst suspecting that your injunction to quit the church may be somewhat tongue in cheek, I think there is some responsibility here to promote both wise and radical action at a time when many—leaders and people—are finding that the traditional, organisational, meeting-oriented systems of Churchianity a life-less and meaningless experience and then giving up hope and opting out instead of seeking to be part of a biblical, organic, relational based new covenant community of friends in Jesus where together we seek to live in and live out the reality of the life, of the new and living way we have in Jesus our Lord and Saviour!

As I said from the heart brother to brother.

Love in Jesus, a brother in Christ,

Brett Patterson, South Africa

Dear Leadership Journal,

I just read the article entitled, Six Ways I Quit Church, with great interest. I appreciate Chad’s desire to be more effective in reaching the lost. There is no question that believer’s need to be able to witness effectively to unbelievers.

However, I will have to say that much of what Chad says seems to be shallow and anemic. Somehow I don’t think the great Bible expositors and evangelists throughout church history (e. g. , Charles Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, George Whitfield, John Wesley, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, etc … ) engaged in sermon preparation in “bagel-like shop” locations! They gave themselves to rigorous study and prayerful meditation to the Word and to their work. But, no one will argue that these Godly men did a poor job influencing their culture, transforming the church and winning the lost. I believe it is such superficial, shallow approaches presented in this article as to why the evangelical church in our country is so weak and ineffective at fulfilling its mission in the world.

I have had the privilege to travel to many different countries and train pastors. I can say without a doubt that the Methodist church in Cuba is winning thousands to Christ and the church is exploding with new growth. What spurs such growth? “Fish talk?” Attending KISS concerts, smelling pot and beer stench? Behaving like a native? No! Their effectiveness comes from blood, earnest prayer, intense, passionate worship (which draws unsaved people literally from out of the streets to enter into the churches!, I have witnessed this personally), powerful, uncompromising preaching of the Gospel and a commitment to live the Christian life in the midst of persecution regardless of the consequences.

I understand Chad’s point, but I think his approach nullifies his goal.

John Fonville, Highlands Ranch, Colorado

We quit going to church because we could not fit in the church box. When Catholic church messed up Protestant church came along. Today 500 years later protestant church is messed up too. So every time someone comes up with a new idea, starts a new denomination. Therefore we have over 60,000 denominations. Finally someone came up with the idea of a non-denominational church. Which in itself became a denomination and an organization in it’s own right. People following people instead of following God.

In all these different organizational structures, almost always the organization takes over the “fish” concept. So, we all start playing church, follow and imitate each other rather than following and imitating Christ. Soon, we forget ourselves and we forget the fish out there!

My husband says my house is a church, Christ lives right here in our house. It is a good idea to quite church at least for a while just to figure out who we really are.

Aida

The writer of the article seems to forget that a viable relationship with God can guard against the necessity for quitting church. It is God who places us in a church not for ourselves but for the Body of Christ. He has placed us in the local assembly to be a blessing to it. If we would allow Him to be our guide, He can guard us against becoming institutionally locked and listless. God will help us to maintain a freshness in worshipping and serving. God will also guide us into places us rest that will not make it necessary to withdraw from worshipping and ministering.

Far too often we burn out because we lose sight of our covenantal relationship with God and the church He gave birth to through the Christ event. We must remember this work is not about us; it is about God.

Yes, we need to take vacations; yes we need respites; but these times of rest do not require quitting church. We are refreshed in our journey with Christ. It is God who gives us ‘balance’ in life. It is the balance in life that does not make quitting church a necessity. Again, God can refresh us in our journey if we would move from the center to the sidelines and let Him do the driving.

Be Miss Daisy and let God do the driving.

Darrell S. Greene

I enjoyed your article about “quitting church. ” I did not drop out, so to speak, but I did organize a three-piece band called “The Goodfoot Band. ” We perform in local festivals and some clubs. People are shocked to see me in this role. I love it! Our repertoire consists of gospel, blues and jazz and many wonderful fish out there follow me back to the church on Sunday mornings because I dared to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to these types of venues. One person labeled me as the “hardest working woman in show business. ” Try that on for size, Brother James Brown (smile). Members of the congregation have witnessed this “new” ministry and it has helped them also to come out of their comfort zones and really become “fishers of men AND women. “

Rocking and Rolling for Jesus,

Pastor Patrinell Wright, Seattle, Washington

I just read the article about “Quitting Church. ” At first, I gasped. How could any strong Christian ever quit church?Then I got the point he was getting at:in order to effectively catch fish and be fishers of men, you must spend time with the “men/fish. ” This is hitting home to me as this past Sunday I preached on “Follow me” out of Luke 5. It was the second week in my new church. It amazes me that Jesus didn’t say (although we think He may have meant this) “Follow me … to the nearest church. ” No, He told them to Follow Me to the nearest fish, the nearest unsaved people, those that really needed His help.

Thanks for challenging me with this fresh idea today. And I just might prepare myself for Bible Study tonight by getting around some lost fish, so that I can “think like the fish”.

Mike Willis, Portsmouth, Virginia

As provocative as the article by Chad Hall may be, Chad has missed things that Christ commanded. The author of Hebrews tells us not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together as is the manner of some. Jesus tells us that in our unity and love they will Glorify God. Who?The fish that are lost and we are fishing for. It is an interesting analogy Chad tries to draw of a fisherman then relegates the church to an ineffecient boat. Yet did not the Disciples use boats with nets (not alone for it would be nearly impossible to fish with a net). All of the metaphors Jesus uses of fishing are in the context of a group, not solo and certainly not rejecting the body of Christ or live as the world lives.

Chad has done a good job of challenging me, but his example falls far, far short of Jesus’ who regularly went to the synagogue.

Something to think about.

Todd Clark, Battle Creek, Michigan

Christianity was created to be lived within the context of community, so quitting going to church is not a biblical option. What would have happened to the early church in Acts 2 if they all had decided they needed a break from each other and stopped meeting together? God’s plans would have been put on the back burner, which is something we American Christians are very good at.

There are many ways to get out of the church-as-it’s-always-been mindset. Chris touched on some good ones, but he forgot that there is no need to leave the church in order to establish relationships with unchurched folks. Join your local school’s site committee or school board, serve on the planning commission, go people watch at Wal-Mart and strike up conversations, get involved with a local festival, join the Lion’s Club. There are lots of ways to do it. They don’t require skipping church.

We can’t afford to separate the church and the world we live in. We have to learn to integrate our faith and our church life with our life in our community. Call it ministry. Call it outreach. Call it relationship-building. Call it anything you want, but don’t skip church. That’s an excellent way to play right into Satan’s hands.

Just my opinion.

Brian Hawes, Lebanon, Oregon

Rock on !!!

Marc Clarke

Triple Amen on the, “I Quit Church” article!!!

Chris Smith

I’ve never responded to one of your articles in your magazine before, but “Six Ways I Quit Church” is inappropriate and lacks an appreciation for God’s mission for us on earth.

Can you imagine the Apostle Paul “quitting”?No, he ran his life like a race. I am all for “taking a vacation,” or a short sabbatical, but this article talks about a pastor essentially skipping church for years at a time. Pastors who feel “out of touch” with their community ought to try assembling a team from their church to go out street witnessing. The article suggests attending “rock concerts. ” Well how about taking a stack of tracts to a rock concert and witnessing to this lost generation rather than sitting back and “observing them” as they die in their sins.

The answer to being out of touch, and the key to boredom in Christianity is EVANGELISM. I do not believe that the Apostles were bored for one day, nor do I think they were out of touch with people. I am concerned that your article will influence some pastors to stop ministering, when they should be rededicating themselves to the true purposes and plans of God. Something for you to think about.

Jim Bublitz, Brookfield, Wisconsin

Right On!

Eric Beeman, Temecula, California

I am appalled at the content of this article … in a LEADERSHIP journal, none-the-less. It would be one thing to suggest that leaders become more in tune with their community by engaging it more, and involving themselves in secular activities, but the premise that you must QUIT church to gain insight is absolutely ludicrous. This same faulty logic would dictate that you can’t minister to drug addicts unless you’ve been one. The Bible specifically says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching. ” Hebrews 10:25. It is not necessary for me to quit attending church to have the heart of compassion for the people who are not Christians. It takes the move of the Holy Spirit to change our arrogant attitudes. But to promote the thought that leaders need to quit church to gain perspective is exactly what our enemy wants.

Stacy Shown, Graham, Washington

I thought I went to church to worship God because I love Him; because I need the accountability with other Christians and their ministry to me; because I was supposed to, as their pastor, equip the believers to serve and know God; and various other reasons. I see nowhere in Scripture God telling His followers that they need to hang out with unbelievers more and not with each other so much. The early church met together every day. We don’t need a message like Chad Hall is suggesting. I know the people I interact with on a weekly basis need a more biblical view of what the gathering of the church and living as a body is all about. They need more of it in their life because they are swimming with the fish six days a week. And they suffer when they don’t experience all that God intends to be experienced in a church family. And so do I.

Being F. A. T. for Jesus! (Faithful, Available, Thankful)

Brent Bodenhamer, Langford, South Dakota

In response to your article, “quit church,” I would like to say Bravo! I have been in church leadership for 25 years, and recently expressed to a deacon that we all need to break out of these prison walls we call church and live like Jesus did and do like Jesus did! I am in a Pentecostal church and we think we are free in the Spirit, but most of us are as stale as yesterday’s mashed potatoes, so thank you, Brother for stirring us up before it’s too late!

Evelyn

Even as the preaching minister, I too enjoy quitting from time to time.

1. We, my wife and I enjoy the occasional “drink” and get far away to enjoy the pleasure without drunkenness or fear of hurting anyone.
2. I’ve taken an official ‘sabbatical’ from all ‘church’ (six weeks. )
3. My wife and I go on 24-hour trips and enjoy each other and no other.
4. Finally, yearly I join a close pastor friend and we retreat; some solitude, some ‘iron sharpening iron,’ and some golf. It is incredible how each of these refreshes and gives a new view in its own way.

Mike, Ohio

I think (this) is nuts. (Chad Hall’s) article is entertaining but void. You must be scrambling for good copy.

Scott

Oh, I get it, instead of going to church, mix with the world until your head is so full of garbage thinking that you feel that you need God again. How arrogant can you get?

Of course we need to rub elbows with sinners to get them interested in church, but we certainly don’t need to disobey God’s commands to understand the “fish. “

I wonder how many people Mr. Hall led to the Lord while he was “out of touch” with the church those four years. I’m sure he has plenty of illustrations from rock concerts, but his people need a picture of heaven, not hell.

Greg Lint, Troutville, Virginia

While I understand the point of being normal, I think his credibility is questionable and his point is thin.

I am a bi-vocational pastor, a marketing director and clergy. I believe in what I do. Marketing is not my passion. But, it has enabled me to do ministry for free in a low income area what many people need to be paid to do. I love it. I am not looking for a way out. Nor do I think most are.

I think Chad’s view was the weakest piece of advice for pastor’s that I have read. I encourage you to print an alternative view.

Travis Johnson

Hey!

I liked the article about quitting church. I am a pastor at Garden Lake Bible Church in Lindenwold, New Jersey. There are four of us and we all have full time jobs like real people. We are a plural leadership/elder run Bible Church. I wouldn’t trade my place there for any stuffy church office where you don’t rub shoulders with the real fish. Oh! By the way, I love to fish too!

Dave Aune

In response to “Six Ways I Quit Church”, I must say that this is an odd and unbiblical reaction to an erroneous assumption. The writer’s premise is that pastors are far removed from the thinking and lifestyles of the “fish” and we have completely forgotten what life in the “water” is really like.

First of all, how can anyone, let alone a pastor, be that isolated or insulated from the “real” world? We don’t live in monasteries but in communities of one kind or another. Many pastors are bi-vocational. We are bombarded by the media constantly. So this idea of living in some kind of ecclesiastical cocoon is largely a myth. At the same time it is true that we have been delivered from the ungodly filth of a degenerate culture and have been translated into “the kingdom of His dear Son”.

His solution to this misperceived encapsulation is to disregard the divine injunction to “forsake not the assembling of yourselves together” but rather to desecrate the Lord’s Day in order to come to the realization that the “unchurched fish” are not all “vicious” and “rude”. In fact, they are quite “normal”. The question is, when have the people of God ever felt a compelling need to become part of a fallen, doomed culture rather than seeking to redemptively impact the culture? Or, as has been said, how can anyone lift another if he or she is on the same level as the person who needs lifting? We will either influence our culture for God and for good or be influenced by our culture toward compromise and evil.

Is the writer so convinced that the church is so archaic and outmoded that we have to alter our thinking, compromise our principles and imitate lifestyles that are an abomination to God?As to his first “suggestion” i. e. getting out of one’s office, while this is certainly a valid point, I can not help but wonder how many pastors are, in fact, spending too little time in their “study” (not office) on their knees with the Word and hence an epidemic of anemic and ineffectual preaching and scarcity of excellent biblical exposition?

Concerning his second suggestion, that of “going to school,” I concur it is always wise to endeavor to “expose” rather than “impose” as Becky Pippert put it.

His third suggestion I find troubling to say the least:While I understand the biblical precedent he may have in mind … how far can one go down this road? Would he, for example, go to a drunken orgy? A spouse-swapping party?Can anyone honestly imagine the Apostle Paul hanging out at the Temple of Diana in Corinth during one of their sensual and idolatrous orgies? I don’t think so.

His fourth suggestion is a good one and every weary, battle-worn pastor ought to do this from time to time. But why must he “pressure people” to attend church? Is it not unethical and simply wrong to “pressure” people to do anything? Perhaps there is a fine line between persuasion and pressure but it is an extremely crucial one. “Pressure” smacks of coercion and manipulation, something we don’t need in our churches. Regarding his fifth suggestion, it has already been said that there are, today, many pastors who are, in fact, bi-vocational. I do think it a good idea to visit, if possible, for a pastor to visit his people’s places of employment and come to know them in that setting.

Finally, as to his sixth suggestion, this is just absolutely unacceptable!The church is God’s medium for redemption and blessing to a desperate world. Does it need reformation? Yes. Should it not be relevant? Without a doubt. But the answer is most assuredly NOT in either rejecting it or ignoring it. Rather, becoming an integral part of it and allowing God to energize it and us to impact a sensuous, suicidal culture with the timeless message of hope.

Thank you for allowing me to express myself.

Michael Williams

Quitting church. I believe I understand his premise that we can be so “churched” that we neglect or forget that there is another world out there filled with the “unchurched. “That we may become “dulled” in our ability to know and feel that which drives “regular” unchurched people.

His comment regarding the members who get 5 or 6 days of swimming with the fish is interesting. How does he know that these church members are not swimming around with their “church goggles” on?How does he know that they are experiencing anything of the world around them? If being stuck in the boat makes one an expert on the boat … what’s wrong with that?Certainly the captain of the ship realizes that the man-eating demons of the deep would like a piece of him, without his actually having to experience a shark bite. And someone needs to know about the boat! How to steer it, maintain it, expand it’s utility, keep the crew and the boat on course.

The first five suggestions; out of the office, going to school, partying on, getting out of town and going to work are all creative ways of keeping one’s finger on the pulse beat of one’s community, and world.

I can’t understand, or condone “quitting” church. If he means that he intentionally did not go to church regularly to add meaning to his life or to better understand the world around him … well, that seems extreme and counter-intuitive to the purpose and role that we individual Christians have within the church. What role or ministries operated less optimally, when Mr. Hall, a right hand for the purpose of discussion, left the rest of the body to fend for itself, while he quit church? There may be much more to Mr. Hall’s story than what was included, however, there was obviously some disillusionment with “church” that drove him to “quit. “Somewhere in the midst of quitting some need was not being met. Where was the influence of the collective body of believers during this time in his life?

I don’t believe one needs to quit church in order to maintain an active realization of the mind of the world, the mind of sinners. One just needs to look around, read and stay connected, or at least, be apart of one’s community, in order to see and feel the needs of a dying existence. A meaningful prayer life will include an appeal to better understand the world, and the unsaved sinners around us.

Of course, I have misunderstood other peoples’ premises before and quite possibility entirely missed Mr. Hall’s thesis altogether !

T. P.

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