Maybe Church?
I write these words as the sun dawns on Good Friday morning 2025. For as long as I can remember this day, and Easter Sunday has been a profound and special moment in the annual rhythm of Christian life for me. It is a time to gather with community, to reflect on the death and resurrection of Jesus and how our lives together are caught up in the great gospel invitation of redemption and resurrection through Christ. It's also been a day of adrenalin for me, and needing to be on point as hundreds gather to participate in something inspiring, creative and beautiful.
But this Good Friday and Easter Sunday I'm at a bit of a lose end. On purpose that is, giving my church and old staff team vital time to find their feet apart from its old Senior Pastor, and if I am honest, myself time to find my own feet apart from the role. I finished my role at the start of the year and for most of the year I'm choosing a kind of social obscurity, stepping away from the platforms I've lived on, handing back the keys, and the microphones. It's weird, but I think wise.
Actually, I'm not missing much at all about my old role 3 months down the track. What I feel the most acutely is the intentional dislocation from community and community gathered in moments like Easter. I will visit a mate's church today and some friendly faces will be there, but they aren't my community so it always feels a bit like rocking up to a birthday party of your friend's close group of friends.
Absence from my church community will last for much of the year while a new leader is appointed, and in the meantime I have an opportunity to experience first hand what dislocation feels like. Over the years I've witnessed so many people disconnect from church communities, deconstruct and sometimes destruct their faith. Covid catalysed much soul searching for people and for many, the search ended in ending their commitments to gathering with a specific community in a specific rhythm.
And there were lots of reasons. In the thick of those Covid years I remember sitting down to write a list of all the reasons I'd been given by people for why our church was no longer necessary and in about 30 minutes I'd rattled off 50 reasons that my bruised heart has squirrelled away over the years. Some really valid of course, and some just sad.
I still think a lot about those who deconstructed or just reprioritised life away from the rhythm and discipline of gathering. Sometimes I blame myself, but mostly I just feel sadness, and sometimes a little anger if they had young children who then missed out on the profoundly formative gift of faith development in community.
In a recent NCLS aritcle exploring findings from their annual Australian Community Survey and research from the Scanlon Foundation found that people who worship together have
• Higher social cohesion across all domains
• Higher levels of civic engagement,
• Higher levels of subjective wellbeing.
I still think a lot about those who deconstructed or just reprioritised life away from the rhythm and discipline of gathering. Sometimes I blame myself, but mostly I just feel sadness, and sometimes a little anger if they had young children who then missed out on the profoundly formative gift of faith development in community.
In a recent NCLS aritcle exploring findings from their annual Australian Community Survey and research from the Scanlon Foundation found that people who worship together have
• Higher social cohesion across all domains
• Higher levels of civic engagement,
• Higher levels of subjective wellbeing.
People think more collectively, they behave more selflessly and the feel more positive about life. Im not surprised about these findings because they are precisely what I've witnessed throughout my life in faith community.
Its easy to miss the forest of goodness for the few trees of challenge in the rhythm of Sunday church. Yes people can be irritating, pastors can disappoint, relationships strained, Sundays may not do it for you, and serving can be a drag sometimes. Yes the preacher may be not be all that engaging and the band off key. Yes the coffee might be weak and the parking lot full. Yes a sleep in sounds brilliant and a room full of people sounds stressful.
Its easy to miss the forest of goodness for the few trees of challenge in the rhythm of Sunday church. Yes people can be irritating, pastors can disappoint, relationships strained, Sundays may not do it for you, and serving can be a drag sometimes. Yes the preacher may be not be all that engaging and the band off key. Yes the coffee might be weak and the parking lot full. Yes a sleep in sounds brilliant and a room full of people sounds stressful.
Yes church might be all that. But its much more than that, and indeed all those niggles are not problems to resist but parts of the curriculum for our formation and maturation. Sure things can to some extent be done better, but the point of being church is being a community of people whose entwined lives and loves are being progressively reoriented away from self toward the love of God, one another and world. And in that place, people experience a different kind of flourishing and goodness in life that your sporting team or smashed avo at the cafe or sleep in can only try and mimic.
Some of the latest research from McCrindle is indicating a quiet return to Christianity by people who had walked away in recent years (see also here). Nearly 785,000 Australians who identified as having no religion in the 2016 Census listed Christianity in 2021. The statistical decline in Christianity in the past few decades is often presented as evidence for a societal shift away from faith toward secularity. But perhaps all it really reveals is that cultural Christianity is finally dead in Australia and people only tick the Christian box because they have a genuine conviction to identify as Christian.
Over 55's, according to McCrindle, are the largest age bracket returning to churches as are millennials and younger who are becoming increasingly disillusioned with post-modern relativism, the limitations of science and technology, and dwindling hope of economic prosperity in their generation. McCrindle notes that the majority of young people want to have spiritual conversations as they search for a sense of identity, meaning and purpose beyond these.
Anecdotally I'm constantly hearing pastors say that new people keep showing up on Sunday and many are returning after a hiatus of several years of non attending any church. I suspect the social cohesion of community, the engagement of purpose beyond self, and the reorientation of life around a commitment to spiritual formation and worship - is something the church uniquely offers and with it a life of renewed significance, purpose and flourishing.
Some of the latest research from McCrindle is indicating a quiet return to Christianity by people who had walked away in recent years (see also here). Nearly 785,000 Australians who identified as having no religion in the 2016 Census listed Christianity in 2021. The statistical decline in Christianity in the past few decades is often presented as evidence for a societal shift away from faith toward secularity. But perhaps all it really reveals is that cultural Christianity is finally dead in Australia and people only tick the Christian box because they have a genuine conviction to identify as Christian.
Over 55's, according to McCrindle, are the largest age bracket returning to churches as are millennials and younger who are becoming increasingly disillusioned with post-modern relativism, the limitations of science and technology, and dwindling hope of economic prosperity in their generation. McCrindle notes that the majority of young people want to have spiritual conversations as they search for a sense of identity, meaning and purpose beyond these.
Anecdotally I'm constantly hearing pastors say that new people keep showing up on Sunday and many are returning after a hiatus of several years of non attending any church. I suspect the social cohesion of community, the engagement of purpose beyond self, and the reorientation of life around a commitment to spiritual formation and worship - is something the church uniquely offers and with it a life of renewed significance, purpose and flourishing.
Perhaps going it alone wears off. It's already worn off for me and Ive only been absent for 12 weeks! Absence makes my heart grow fonder.
Hey if you've read this far in my Easter ramble, maybe this weekend is a good time to take a chance on a local evangelical church near you? Maybe it's one you left long ago, or its one you've driven by a hundred times? I guarantee it wont tick all your boxes, and it will feel awkward.
But it might also be the start of something beautiful.
