I woke up early this morning with the phrase, “Dechurching is Detoxiing,” running through my mind. This is one of the ways Holy Spirit I’ve learned to hear from the Holy Spirit.
Detoxing on a physical level is simply removing the impurities that get into our physical bodies through the food we ingest, the water we drink, and the environment we are in.
Sometimes, the chemicals in our bodies can be intentionally added to our bodies through poor choices or behaviors, such as overindulging in alcohol, smoking, illegal drugs, medications, supplements, or other nonhealthy actions.
Other times, these chemicals can be added unintentionally. We may try to make healthy choices with our foods, but there were things added to those foods, sprayed on the fruits and vegetables, added to the ground in which the food was raised or the animals graze, and often unbeknownst to us, these chemicals enter into our bodies.
Even other things are able to get into our physical bodies through the environment we live in, the air we breathe, the water we bathe in, or even the cleaning products used in cleaning our homes or doing laundry.
”Stuff” gets into our body that shouldn’t be there, and there becomes a time when we may need to complete a detoxification process.
Spiritually speaking, we also need to consider a detoxing of sorts. The church system, that is, the institutional church system, has strayed from the Creator’s original intent. Sadly, world cultures and pagan religions have greatly influenced the church system, inserting toxins into the system that are found nowhere in scripture.
Unfortunately, those toxins are spread, ingested, and accepted as normal because that is how we’ve always seen it done.
However, much of the church system is not what Jesus intended. Today, our spiritual man has ingested and absorbed things that are additives to scripture and Jesus’ words.
Much like GMOs, scriptures have been manipulated to reinforce the traditions of the church system and its ability to control the systems and its people.
Scriptures on honor, authority, and others have been genetically modified to fit the bill. Even though Jesus’ own words tell us that the rulers of the world lord it over the people, it should not be so among you, brethren (Matthew 20:25-26).
GMO scriptures ignore this, and others like it to maintain the top-down authority structure that is in place because those at the top want to stay there, and others want to climb the corporate ladder to be on top.
Many people have left the church system or de-churched but have not left their faith in the One who started the Ekklesia.
Some individuals who have de-churched have been mortally wounded by power-hungry people in leadership. Others, like myself, were involved in the system for years but began to see how the system had veered off the course Jesus set. Many of us have been prompted by the Holy Spirit to walk away. But not just walk away, but try to detox from the impurities that have been instilled in us and find a better and healthier way to be Ekklesia.
As I go through this detoxing from Churchianity, I have discovered that one of the biggest problems is that it separates the believers from one another. When we find ourselves outside of the system, we are alone. The system will shun us, condemn us, and ridicule us to the point of writing us off as backslidden or heretics.
The system will use some of its biggest tactics against us, such as GUILT and CONDEMNATION, to try to get us back into the system’s doors.
I am not against gatherings. The scriptural correct believers gathering is desperately needed, but not the toxic churchianity system of gatherings where certain people are elevated to high levels of position. In contrast, others are limited to making coffee or waving as people enter the building.
There need to be gatherings of the Ekklesia where all believers are on equal ground. No super Christians are elevated because of their pedigree, education, or financial status. Everyone is free to speak, share, pray, sing, and support (1 Corinthians 14:26). All are one, just as Jesus prayed in John 17:22-23.
Only a spiritually blind person can look at the churchianity system and think it mirrors the Body of Christ. Instead of a united Body of Oneness, we have a multi-splintered, dysfunctional system of over 45,000 separate bodies worldwide. There’s not much unity there.
Unfortunately, this has made a weak and ineffective church that is not impacting the world and culture around us but is hunkering down, building their own little church houses, having potluck dinners, and hearing monologue sermons instead of building His House full of the Holy Spirit, on the earth.
It has taken at least 1,700 years for the church system to twist into what it has become and stray far from the Ekklesia of Jesus Christ so that it won’t be reformed overnight. But it has to start somewhere.
I believe a good starting point is simply getting people already in detox church mode to come together outside of the system to seek the Lord for direction on restoring Ekklesia to our localities while keeping the toxins from creeping back in.
(I am not seeking to pull anyone out of a church system group. If you want to remain, then remain. However, if you have already dechurched or are considering dechurching, there has to be more than just going it alone.)
This is a difficult challenge because no matter how far into detox we are, there can still be things from the system that have a hold on us.
I have spent much of the last 25 years detoxing without even knowing it. God would prompt me to question what I believed or thought I believed. As I began to search out those issues, many times I would realize that what I had held as “gospel truth” was, in fact, not in scripture anywhere. It was simply man’s version to maintain the systems in place.
Over the past few years, I have been looked at by others as a weird, backslidden, lost person who was having a crisis of faith. Honestly, there have been a few moments where I wondered if they were right. Maybe I should go back and sit in a pew and listen to someone give a sermonar, and then go about my business the rest of the week just like everyone else.
But then I look at the questions. Here are just a few:
- How is the church system working? Is it a Jesus-led system or a CEO-driven business model with a corporate structure?
- Is the world changing because of the church system?
- How many divisions can there be in the church and still call it His Body? There are at least 45,000 right now.
- Can you name one church that has dramatically impacted the culture of the community in which they reside? Crime is down? Homelessness is gone? Drugs are gone? Is spiritual awakening taking place? Or did we just get more people from other churches to attend ours because we have a more extraordinary building, fantastic singers, and a hip preacher?
- If your church closed its doors today, who would know? Who would care besides those who go into the building on Sundays?
- If your pastor left the church suddenly, how many people would go church shopping for another church to attend?
- Does your church restore believers who fail, or do they kick them to the curb? What if it was your pastor? Is he/she disqualified to minister?
- Do you love like Jesus? What does that even mean?
- Do you love your enemies? What if they are the president?
- Does your church’s evangelistic training include putting tracts in the public toilet? Really?
- And so many more…
Really?
At least in our Western culture, the church system has gone off track. It has become a business, a corporation, run by CEOs and boards, with the average local congregation spending over 90 percent of all funds on staff salaries, buildings, and keeping people who attend weekly comfortable. It has turned Jesus’ gospel into a message about getting to heaven when we die but nothing about changing the world to be like heaven. (That was His prayer, after all.)
Years ago, I completed a physical detoxification process. The cleansing process was not a pleasant one. Things in the body had to come out. And while the process didn’t feel very good, the result was advantageous.
I believe this is true for many Believers in Jesus. We’re in a spiritual detox state, and while it isn’t always pleasant, the results for Christ’s Body on earth will be advantageous for His purpose.
