What I Learned from ‘Leaving Church’ (pt 1)

When a friend recommended a book to me called Leaving Church, I was surprised by two things. My first surprise was that the book was written by one of the best preachers I have ever heard, Barbara Brown Taylor.  But the second fact surprised me even more: she had left vocational ministry after a considerable number of years.

Since this book was the story of her departure, I thought it might be worth the read. It was worth the read, and this and the next two posts on my blog will offer three reasons why.

Where you are is exactly where you are

Many of us succumb to the delicious lie that ‘the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.’ We cannot help but think our lives would simply be more satisfying if we were somewhere else.

Part of Taylor’s journey is the story of her search for greener pastures. She leaves a busy urban church setting in Atlanta for the quieter meadows of a rural community in Clarksville, Georgia. She breathes in the beauty of the quiet, old church building in the slower-paced small town context. Yet, as time rolls on, Taylor eventually finds her pace is just as frenetic as in Atlanta. What has happened?

Barbara Brown Taylor has found out that different pastures do not make a different her. She is still the same person internally that loved the busy pace, the success, and the frenzy of the previous church.

This is true for all of us. The unflattering truth is that, more often than not, the problem is not the grass of our pastures but us. Some of us discover this before we hop the fence. For others, the discovery comes in finding that grass is just grass whatever side of the fence it is on. Unfortunately, still others of us never realize self-awareness and just keep hopping fences for the rest of their lives.

Leaving Church helped me to understand that where I am is exactly where I am. I must be attentive to my own soul, and not think that another “thing” – insert any of the following words: achievement, job, gadget, house, success – will make me feel better.