Emerging Churches without a Church

I suspect that for the last ten years or so I’ve read all the wrong books. The right books were all around me, and people around me were reading them. I, for whatever reason, wasn’t drawn to them. Maybe it was a religious rebelliousness of sorts, or maybe it was that same reality in me which tended to not like the chapel speakers others liked, and to be drawn to those who didn’t seem to resonate with others. I don’t know. But I do blame those wrong sorts of books for my present state in life, this being an entirely unacceptable sort of state, and one which I am occasionally embarrassed and usually cautious about admitting.

Hello, my name is Patrick. I have not attended church regularly for two years.

I have, however, found a deepening faith, a renewed and developing understanding of Jesus, and found myself interacting with others in wonderfully spiritual ways. I have not forsaken meeting with other Christians. I just don’t go to a Sunday service, and don’t have a pastoral staff responsible for my spiritual interactions. I’m not quite sure whether I have a church, though in a curious way I find myself doing church more thoroughly in many ways, ways which seem to match up to the various traits of the Emerging Church, though admittedly more informally than even some of these avante garde devotees might allow.

I hope here to both describe some of these basic traits and, hopefully, suggest how a person in an unchurched church goes about pursuing these aims even without a formal setting.

The first trait is called “identifying with Jesus”. Like it sounds, the Emerging Church takes special note of the person of Jesus as not only a message but also a model. Rather than emphasizing the oft over spiritualized “Christ” the real life of Jesus is seen as a worthwhile pattern for our daily lives.

This is the most defining component in my case. While in church I increasingly began to realize, and feel deep within, a calling not only to proclaim Christ but to be able to say, along with Paul, to live is Christ. This began in college and developed over the years. Unfortunately, I also began to increasingly see distractions in my ecclesial experiences. I increasingly realized that my efforts in church were about Christ, sometimes, being mostly about church programs, but had little to do with Jesus. I seemingly came to a crossroads. I could stay in church and embrace the distractions, or I could pursue the path of Jesus and seek the fullness of what he offered. This path entails the disciplines Jesus exemplifies, as well as the intentional, yet casual, spirituality wherever he went.

The second trait of the Emerging Church is the transformation of secular space. Essentially this is a return to the more typical human model of sacred and secular interaction. There is no real division, as modernity would suggest.

Following the pursuit of Jesus as a model, this is the most essential quality of my present state. With there being no formal sacred space in my life, I either become fully secular or I begin to realize the spirituality of the every day. Each moment, then, is sacred, each space I occupy becomes a place of divine interaction. In this I never distance myself from the spiritual lessons I can learn, or remove myself from the spiritual contributions I can make. If the Spirit is in me, then wherever I go the Spirit is with me, thus all I do becomes a worship experience, with the goal being making all of such acceptable forms of worship (cf. Romans 12:1).

The third trait is “living as a community”. The body of Christ is made up of many parts, and these parts aren’t pasted together and independently functioning. Instead, each part is united and interrelated. For the body to function right, the various systems which tie it all together have to be working. So too with the Church. There has to be real activity in the building of community.

In this we find my situation particularly different. Without a formal community the intentionality of meeting with a set group of covenanted individuals doesn’t happen. Instead, I look at community the same way I look at space. Each interaction I have becomes a spiritual interaction, and with those I am close to I intentionally seek a relationship that breaks through the wall of superficiality. Among these relationships are particular ones which also involve mutual prayer and spiritual conversation. I pray specifically for these others, they specifically pray for me, we discuss our spiritual lessons and challenges, and otherwise create a bond of the Spirit in our lives.

The fourth trait is “welcoming the stranger”. In this we see one of Jesus’ most apparent traits. He was always meeting and encouraging people, leading each person he met towards a greater spiritual state.

Without the sacred space, there is not a church I see as my place of spiritual duty. Instead, it is my goal to see each interaction, wherever, as a place to reflect Christ. This isn’t about evangelism. This is about recognition. I want to perceive the Spirit in others, and in even the briefest interactions to be the kind of person who brings light to each moment.

“Serving with generosity” is the fifth trait of the Emerging Churches. Here we have the special efforts of helping others, making sure their needs are met, and going out of our way to be someone for someone else.

Here we have a particularly interesting trait I am able to pursue. Because of my choices, I have a flexible schedule which I see as a responsibility. Though busy, I can adjust my time to help those around me, making special efforts of both time and energy which are both planned and spontaneous. Being there for someone in this era of persistent obligations is a particular blessing I find. Indeed, I see this as a primary duty, with my other efforts always taking a backseat to opportunities of helping out.

The sixth trait is “participating as producers”. We’re not meant to be passive recipients of God’s work in this world. We are called to interact, to contribute, to reflect the Spirit through our gifts as others reflect them to us.

This is not an option in my unchurched lifestyle. If I am not active in the pursuit of Christ, I have no pursuit of Christ. If I do not study Scripture, I have no sermon to encourage me. If I do not pray, I have no liturgy to undergird me. If I do not notice and respond to the Spirit, I lose the entire basis of my spiritual life in this moment. My spirituality is entirely dependent on my participation, and in this I become able to participate with others in their journeys while never dependent on others for my spiritual well being.

With this is the seventh trait, “creating as created beings.” In a typical church we can be lulled into a complacency of liturgy, where we perform an act without the spiritual fruit. However, in an unchurched church, where I don’t have a worship band following me, or a mighty pipe organ belting out my favorite hymns, to worship I have to have a creative worship. This includes musical worship, of my own, as well as non-musical acts of consideration and liturgy, which helps to point me towards God in new ways, and helps the transformation of the secular back towards the sacred.

The eighth trait is “leading as a body”. Everyone who is filled with the Spirit has an area in which they contribute to the Spirit’s work. No on is in charge of the Spirit. Leadership, then, reflects this broad participation, becoming a fluid and functional exercise which may differ in various areas, but is never hierarchical.

My situation itself assumes this fluidity of leadership. While I have respected mentors, my choice to step away from the church is itself an expression of leadership on my part, willing to forge trails myself, and willing to make decisions which others may doubt. However, even in these I do not walk alone, but take the wisdom and counsel of those in my life as essential for my decisions, and in doing this allow even the leadership of my isolated life to be communally guided.

The ninth trait is “merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities”. The Spirit is not bound by time, and in the spiritual life what is new is not always what is best. While we continue to discover truths, we also forget old lessons, and thus can learn from the Spirit’s work in the present and the Spirit’s work through people of all centuries.

Here we come to all those “wrong books” I’ve read. My spirituality is extremely reflective of the contemporary de-emphasis on church. Yet, my spirituality is also extremely reflective of some of the more obscure trails of the church. My readings, and my prayers, and my very lifestyle reflect a yearning for something the Evangelical church has no allowance for. I began to read the emphases of the monastics, especially those from early centuries, and realized for me to find increased depth I had to follow the trails they forged. This meant a stepping away, into the mountains, and focusing my heart and mind on a fuller, more thorough, pursuit of Christ in what I consider an Evangelical sort of monasticism. This pursuit, which encompasses life as a whole, seeks to find in our present era the best reflections of how those spiritual greats from centuries past found significant depth and light.

It is this last point which ties together all the various aspects in helping me to realize my present state as being something more than a justification for not participating in a formal community. In seeking the depths and realities of Jesus, I saw the pursuits of Christ being exemplified in the monastic forms of Anthony, John Cassian, and manifold others, and knew that light for my present life could only coming from stepping back, and embracing the humility and other lessons which only come from distancing myself from the formal leadership and ambitions a church setting offers.


It is in stepping away from Church, that I have come to really find church, and am coming to really find the depths of Christ and Spirit which may provoke me to more active and fruitful involvement in coming years.