From: http://sojourner.typepad.com

theplanter said: I love this article and this blogsite!

I have been reflecting on a recent comment from a previous post in which Rhonda wrote: "It's very difficult to leave an institutional church. There are so many facets to the process and it took me over 2 years to do it. I look at the whole thing as more of growth than the IC being a sin."

Her point is that we are all in a state of imperfection, whether we are in or not in an "IC." The real question is, starting with where we are, are we continuing to to grow? Are we growing up? Are we maturing? Church does not do it for us... We each have the responsibility for starting where we are today... and continuing to grow.

At the same time, I want to affirm that the process of de-institutionalizing my Christian life has, in fact, provoked a challenging, and exciting growth process in me. It is not simply changing one form of church for another, it is being challenged to trade in passivism for healthy activism and to trade in letting-others-do-it for a healthy self-responsibility.

As I think about this maturing process that has taken place in my life since moving out of the institutional world I see certain points of growth that I have gone through (and that I have watched others go through). I am talking about a blossoming that takes places as we move:

• FROM CONSUMER/SPECTATOR TO PLAYER/PARTICIPANT
• FROM INVOLVEMENT IN WEEKLY OR BI-WEEKLY SACRED EVENTS TO LIVING A SACRED LIFESTYLE (HIS PRESENCE EVERYWHERE I GO)
• FROM DRINKING MILK PREPARED BY OTHERS TO LEARNING TO FEED FROM HIS WORD FOR OUR SELF
• FROM RELIGIOUS ROUTINES TO SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE
• FROM RELIANCE ON EXTERNAL PROGRAMS FOR OUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH TO DEVELOPING AN INNER DISCIPLINE
• FROM CONFORMITY TO OTHERS TO DISCOVERING A NEW CREATIVITY BASED ON OUR OWN UNIQUE CALLING, PASSION, AND GIFTS
• FROM “MY CHURCH” TO “WE THE CHURCH”
• FROM HANGING OUT IN THE CHRISTIAN GHETTO TO SHARING HIS LIFE OUT IN THE WORLD
• FROM MISSIONAL PROJECTS TO MISSIONAL LIVING
• FROM PROJECT PLANNING TO PRAYER MOVEMENTS
• FROM FINDING MY IDENTITY IN "MY" CHURCH, "MY" MINISTRY, OR "MY" MOVEMENT TO FINDING MY FULL IDENTITY IN SIMPLY BEING HIS--HIS CHILD--HIS BELOVED

Perhaps the best way to provoke others to grow from where they are to where they can be is to continue to grow ourselves. It is, after all, this maturing process that truly leads us to greater peace, joy, freedom, love, and fruitfulness. Obviously, if we are demonstrating more and more of these qualities, others will want something more for themselves as well!