by Elizabeth K

Dan Kimball made a (valiant) attempt to describe ten stages that a Christian might typically experience concerning church attending in his blog called Reality Church.  The list of stages is thought-provoking (I’ve been thinking about it for days) and the post has received much feedback since it was written four years ago.

The stages are described in simple terms such as one’s excitement for church in stage one, ministry burn out in stage four, and disillusionment in stage five.  He includes specific examples, some quite humorous, which really are generalizations as he explains at the end of the article.

Along with the commenters and other bloggers who reference the post, I found myself relating to many of the stages, although I have yet to try attending a house church as a means of emulating the early church (as much as possible in this day and age.)  To me, the institutionalized church, which began after the fourth century and continues strong today, seems to characterize even those gatherings of believers whose goal is to steer away from it.

As much as some of us would like, we just can’t seem to understand church apart from the institution.  This is due in part because it is so ingrained into the western way of life, as evidenced by the fact that there is a church on nearly every street corner in some parts of the world.  Emerging churches will dare to do church a little different than the rest, only to resort to a routine liturgy.  Even house churches can fall to the same temptations as larger churches, by conforming to their own group distinctives, and  over-emphasizing the serving/obeying/following of the leadership while never questioning its leading. Read the rest of this entry »