Forwards, Backwards but Mostly Side to Side

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 31 May 2007 07:21:08

Been re-reading A Churchless Faith by Alan Jamieson again this week, in order to get my head round a more narrative style of writing up information obtained during unstructured interviews.

I have to say that it is probably the Christian book (& one of the books - without categorising) which has had most impact on me, particularly when I first read it. Today, it has less impact and I am able to read it more critically as a book, although it still holds a special place in my life and I still agree with most of it - although interestingly I am now starting to think he is overly harsh regarding his assessment of church leaders and their understanding. I believe their responses have to be understood in terms of the religious and cultural climate they were working in at the time.

The book discovered me rather than the other way round because I first read it when a very wise minister who recognised what was going on with this increasingly disillusioned member of his congregation passed it to me to read. It was like the first rain on a parched desert - it was the first time that I "formally" found that my spiritual journey and the way it was heading was not only acceptable in many ways it was quite normal and "proper grown ups" went through similar things. To put this in to context it was before I had discovered (i) the Wibsite, (ii) The Ship and I hadn't been to Greenbelt at that point for a few years.

It's been very interesting re-reading it this month though. With all that has gone on recently with my own internal and external renegotiation of my relationship with church I see that there is a gap in Jamieson's discussion. He looks at leavers relationships with churches and particularly in relation to the "official views" and "leadership" but he doesn't look at the wider culture within churches and the place that the congregation generally may play in influencing faith journeys and the direction they take.

For me the crunch, when I realised that I could no longer remain a member but wanted to remain part of the congregation came as a result of a housegroup meeting. Similarly the knowledge that I have made the right decision to remain part of that congregation is the sheer love and acceptance that I have recieved from them recently. It is known by most that there is "something I really don't agree with alot of them on" but many don't know what that is. Yet they have accepted that and my right to hold a different view and actually been quite affirming of me generally even if they have not agreed with my decision, and a number have gone out of their way to make this known.

Therefore I think the way the general congregation recieve and react to somebody who is deconstructing / reconstructing their faith may be a key factor and an overlooked factor. I think that part of the reason that this may not have come out in Jamieson's work is because many of those he interviewed were former "church leaders" and reactions from the average bum on the pew to those they look up to, when they are reconstructing / deconstructing their faith, may be different (because of the insecurities that reconstruction / deconstruction gives those who are looking up to them).