During one of our visits to the public library, I continued to stroll some while Billy and Lilie Jo stood in line to check out their findings.  On one of the end caps, a title didn’t just catch my eye; rather it reached out grabbed me by the callar and said, “LOOK AT ME!”

So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore was written on the cover.  Whaaat?!  Its written by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Colemen.  What made me even more curious, than the title alone, was the weathered cover.  This bad boy was broken in quite nicely, which meant I was definitely not the only innocent passerby it had abducted.  But before you get all bent out of shape about the title, hear me out: its not what you think.  Well, kind of.

Billy is actually the one who checked the book out and read it first.  It was the first book he’d read in years.  The first one I’ve ever witnessed, for sure. He finished it in two days, which is another feat all of its own.  I’ve never seen him so affected.  Not even by a movie {which are his version of my books}.  Then I got my hands on it.

This book, which is actually written in a fictional story form, fed my hunger for having a relationship with the Father even more.  The book takes the focus off of the church as an organization/building.  It reminds us that we won’t find a relationship with God there.  The book points out that part of Jesus sacrifice was not just freedom from sin, but freedom to have our own relationship directly with God anytime, anywhere.  The church cannot provide that for us.  When I say relationship, I mean a real, life relationship with Him.  As in an exchanging of communication and/or actions between/for one another.

It also changed my full definition of being set free through the crucifiction.

I almost ran out of sticky notes, there were so many awesome passages.  Let me share a few of my favorites?

The more he grew to trust God’s love, the freer he was from those desires that consumed him. Only by trusting Jesus can anyone experience real freedom.

page 47

…it simply respects the process God uses to bring people into truth. I’m not talking about different things being true for different people, but about people discovering that truth in different time frames. If we hold people accountable, they never learn to live in love. We’ll reward those who are better at putting on a front and miss those who are in the real struggle of learning to live in Jesus.

page 51

Scripture doesn’t use the language of need when talking about the vital connetion God establishes between believers. Our dependency is in Jesus alone! He’s the one we need. He’s the one we follow. He’s the one God wants us to trust and rely on for everything. When we put the body of Christ {church} in that place, we make an idol of it, and we end up wrapped in knots over such a situation. Religion survives by telling us we need to fall in line or some horrible fate will befalls us… We share body life {church} together, not because we have to, but because we get to.

page 62

That’s where religion has done the most damage. By making people dependent on its leaders, it has made God’s people passive in their own spiritual growth. We wait for others to show us how, or even just follow them in hopes that they’re getting it right. Jesus wants this relationship with you and he wants you to be an active part in that process.

page 112

Seriously, I could go on and on here, but I’d probably end up copy and pasting the whole book.  If there is anything I’ve ever wanted you to do most, its reading this book.

Whether you’re a believer, skeptical, against it or just testing the waters: read it.