Thread by @bobhamp

I have so many thoughts on the current environment of visible Christian figures speaking up about their “radical departure “ or “walking away” from their faith, as well as thoughts about all the responses.

First, it’s not isolated.
This deconstruction is happening among many who are not as visible.
Here are a few thoughts
First we can look at the individuals and dissect their path, or we can look at the trend and try to understand.

Second, I think the fact that we have so many “visible Christian figures” (read “Christian Celebrities “) is part of the problem.

When we have for decades promoted a system of Christianity where “famous people “ arise we have robbed ourselves of the kind of organic intimate community in which people can have genuine encounters with God that don’t result in a conference and a tour

This culture makes Christianity a self-driven attempt to perform at certain standards and ultimately no different from any other religion.

Second, we have looked at Christianity based on outward expressions that we urge one another to perform. As a result I see only a few movements that really focus on inner transformation.

This leaves people again with an expectation that Jesus has called us to a life of information and self-effort, not surrender and healing

Humanism (information and will power) will always become an impossible weight especially when we disguise it with Biblical language and Christianese.

Third, I am quite certain that a number of people are walking away from the faith they have known, but I’m not as convinced these people are walking away from God.

While some clearly are attempting to sever connection to God, the much greater majority of people I talk to are walking away from “the faith they have known” because that path has not led them to God and they are earnestly seeking to find God.

Church history is filled with mass departures from used Wineskins as people search for the breath of the Living God.

While some label this move as a great “falling away” I am not so sure that the falling away isn’t actually what happens when people cling to rigidity and systems of rules even when they don’t lead to God Himself.

Ultimately each of us will answer only for our own life not what others think of us.
None of us know the heart of another and least of all we don’t know another based on a social media post or an article in a magazine.

Consider our own hearts first & whether or not Love Joy and Peace are the things that flow from our lives Take time to breathe & connect to the Breath of Life. Consider that none of us has all the answers We need each other and we need the willingness to hear and value each other