Is this the Church of the Future?

And how do we recreate the sense of community so many of us have lost?

We’re not talking about a building. Photo by Daniele Colucci on Unsplash

Walking together, finding the way

Recently I shared a prototype of the Bible of the future compiled by Rami Shapiro and published by SkyLight Paths Publishing.

SkyLight has dozens of collections including The Lost Sayings of Jesus, Native American Stories of the Sacred, and The Gospel of Thomas; each annotated and explained by an expert on the text.

As I work through my own spiritual path there are many of SkyLight’s collections that I want to spend time with. I already own a few and I prize each of them.

Recently as I was scouring through the back of one of my copies I discovered what appears to be a sort of mission statement for them:

SkyLight Paths Publishing is creating a place where people of different spiritual traditions come together for challenge and inspiration, a place where we can help each other understand the mystery that lies at the heart of our existence.

Through spirituality, our religious beliefs are increasingly becoming a part of our lives—rather than apart from our lives. While many of us may be more interested than ever in spiritual growth, we may be less firmly planted in traditional religion. Yet, we do want to deepen our relationship to the sacred, to learn from our own as well as from other faith traditions, and to practice in new ways.

SkyLight Paths sees both believers and seekers as a community that increasingly transcends traditional boundaries of religion and denomination—people wanting to learn from each other, walking together, finding the way.

My immediate thought in reading this was what a beautiful picture they paint, followed instantly by what a beautiful community that would be.

Unfortunately they’re not referring to a physical community, a physical church. But it sure would be cool if a place like that existed.

Of all the losses that can occur when we begin to question our faith, it seems the loss of community is often the most common and the most impactful.

As I’ve shared before a church can often serve as a built-in community, a group of friends, that requires little effort to create or maintain. And as we step away from this community we often leave many of those relationships behind, whether involuntarily or by choice.

Let the dead bury the dead

And while many Christian deconstruction groups do exist, particularly online, most of the ones I’ve encountered seem to be quite unhealthy.

Certainly someone needs to call out the continuing abuses, archaic teachings, and low-consciousness antics of what’s become of much of Western Christianity.

And yes, it can be maddening to watch all the ding-dongs who think they love Jesus while simultaneously hating 60-70% of the humans who live around them, but for the time I have left I’ve made the decision to look mostly forward and work to try to create something meaningful for our future generations.¹

And if you’ve spent time with any young people lately you’ve probably already noticed many of them are far more enlightened than we ever were at their age. They’re not falling for the fiasco that much of American Christianity has become.

Besides, as himself Jesus said, “Let the dead bury the dead,” and on the scale of Big Time, most of the Western denominations are already dead, even if they don’t realize it yet.

They are in the process of burying themselves.

A little church history

Speaking of Jesus, he himself is recorded as using the word “church” only twice. And he definitely wasn’t referring to a physical building we might visit once per week. But he did have friends and he was definitely communal. He always seemed to be getting out and meeting new people. Some of those relationships worked out, some of them didn’t.

Even the earliest “churches” were simply like-minded people getting together in their homes. And even though “Paul” occasionally speaks of Deacons and Bishops and other church hierarchy, all those verses were most likely written long after the real Paul was dead, by someone who wasn’t Paul, but who had a vested interest in the organization and power structures of the rapidly growing institution.

And the stories in the book of Acts where “Paul” addresses men with these funny titles were similarly made up and written down decades after the real Paul was long gone.

But you know the cliche: history is written by men with funny titles.

So what should we do?

I’ll start by saying I’m not sure. I try to have friends over and we sometimes discuss spiritual things. We also discuss world events and how frustrated we are with the Home Owners Association and the latest season of that show on HBO.

I’d love to continue to learn from people of other spiritual traditions,² and not just from books.

I’ve considered visiting a local Unitarian Universalist congregation, and there’s one nearby that looks pretty cool based on their website. I’ll probably check it out at some point and promise to definitely write about it here when I do.

Ultimately as I’ve thought about the purpose of church, and even more so the purpose of community, I think it comes down to the fact that life is hard; it’s a struggle and we all need people around us. People to learn from, people to love, people to support one another, and as the SkyLight mission statement says, people “walking together, finding the way.”

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

And speaking of community…what about you?

-How have you handled the loss of community that comes from moving beyond the Christianity you grew up with?

-What actions have you taken to find new friends, whether they be spiritually like-minded or not?

-And have you encountered a place that embodies the mission statement of SkyLight Paths that I shared above?

Let us all know in the comments…

Have a great week, friends! ❤️

1. I have no delusions of grandeur. If I can help a few dozen people, that’s significant, especially to them.

2. Recall this is what Perennial Wisdom is all about.