The wilderness, by its very nature, is not a crowded place. By definition, it's an "uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region".
Subsequent to my exile from organized religion, I have been questioned by curious friends and family members about where I am now. My short answer, "In the wilderness", was adopted from the late Michael Spencer, AKA: the iMonk, who had been an inadvertent spokesman for the emerging movement. He often expounded on the "post-evangelical wilderness" where church refugees find themselves upon exodus from the institution. At first this troubled me when I thought about the children of Israel wandering around in the desert for 40 years; I didn't think I had that much time or energy left to invest in a grueling trek through a virtual wasteland searching for an elusive promised land.
But what I've discovered is that the wilderness is a very uncrowded place of open spaces and unlimited freedom, and I like that a lot. It's like "home on the range" or something (I call myself a "free range believer"). I recall visions of the open highway across the western United States where I toured with my family years ago on summer sightseeing trips. My favorite thing about the open range is that it has no fences, so unencumbered by doctrinal and denominational limitations, I could drive - or hike or gallop - in any direction without restrictions. It's exhilarating!
But now I'm beginning to notice an increasing number of new travelers on this open road. In the last few weeks I've heard of perhaps four more families or couples in my neighborhood who have experienced church blow-ups and are suddenly and unexpectedly out in the wilderness. That's four separate church disasters in the last few weeks.
I've read many books from various obververs who have claimed that the decline of western evangelicalism is speeding up.* Now I'm seeing it myself. Not long ago there seemed to be very few fellow travelers sharing my open road, but now the numbers are increasing, seemingly by the week. I'm beginning to think this wilderness may become crowded before long.
And all along through the stages of my exodus I have wondered where I would end up. If not in another local congregation, then where? While journeying through phases of anger, grief, disillusionment, detoxing and deconstruction of old paradigms, I've had this underlying curiosity about what would take the place of the old empire. But I've quit worrying about it.
Right now I'm enjoying the open road and have decided to embrace it, enjoy it, live life to the full in the middle of it, with the top down, the wind blowing through my hair (yeah!), and my senses keenly taking in the fresh and beautiful scenes that roll by, mile after mile. I'm not in a rush to get to the promised land, wherever that may be; this wilderness is a welcome change, and it's not an especially "inhospitable region" after all, so I'm not in a hurry to get through it. Stuart Murray calls this exile "transformative, liberating, and envisioning".** Cool!
So my blog is changing to better express this journey, starting with the name-change and description you see at the top now; watch for some more modifications coming soon.
Tally-ho, and away we go, following that Spirit of adventure! (See my earlier blog, "The Holy Spirit of Adventure".)
See: Michael Spencer at:
www.internetmonk.com
* For more about the growing exodus from organized church:
-David Kinnaman, Director of The Barna Group, UnChristian- What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, and What to Do About It.
-Scot McKnight' blog at: www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed -Gene Edwards, Beyond Radical
-Reggie McNeal, The Present Future
**Stuart Murray, The Naked Anabaptist, pp. 80-81. Herald Press, 2010.
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