- What’s something you have learned in church that has helped you grow closer to God?
- What’s something you’ve had to UN-learn from church that has helped you grow closer to God?
- Would you say most of your spiritual growth has come from learning, or from UN-learning?
Wayward Son
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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Jeff,
This is an interesting question with an interesting answer. It didn’t take me long to think about.
I have to say that when I first became a Christian 15 1/2 years ago, my spiritual growth came as a result of what I learned in church. And, I continued to grow as a result of what I learned in church, in general. But, now these many years later, most of my spiritual growth, at least recently is coming from what I am unlearning.
It’s almost as if there is a bunch of church induced baggage that needs to be gotten rid of in order to go higher, if that makes any sense.
I honestly never really thought about it until I just read your post. Thanks for that. I’ll definitely be pondering this point further.
I will say that the more churchiness that I get rid of, the freer I feel.
Blessings,
Gary
Jeff,
I’m ready to answer the 1st two questions now.
Something I learned early on in church that helped me to grow closer to God is that it’s o.k. for me to be myself. Because God created me the way that I am and He doesn’t expect me to be something that I’m not. He created me and loves me the way that I am.
Something that I had to unlearned from church that helped me grow closer to God is that, God is not mad at me when I don’t tithe. And when I don’t tithe I’m not cursed with a curse. Because the Bible says that Jesus took my curse on Himself when He died on the cross. And, I don’t expect my own son to give me anything in order to bless him. When I bless my own son it’s because I want to.
Tithing is an old testament law. Giving from the heart is a new testament concept.
Blessings,
Gary
1) I learned enough of who Jesus is and what he did on this earth that I decided to live my life following him.
2) I had to un-learn what living a life following Jesus really means. In chuch I learned how to live a life committed to my church. It is very hard to change perspectives.
3) For me the majority of my spiritual growth has come from the un-learning. As I have stripped away layer after layer of bondage and baggage learned in church I have learned more about Jesus.
Jeff, great questions. For me,
1. I learned how to hear God’s voice and discern the variety of ways He can speak/direct (whatever you want to call it.
2. That having a successful (whatever that means) “full time ministry” was the only way to radically serve God 100% (which is always what I’ve wanted). Unlearning this, I learned that knowing and loving God is the goal – He is the goal. (Loving/ministering to people naturally flows out of the goal, I don’t have to try to do that).
Coming in second is the concept that there was a set “plan of God” for my life, and my job was to figure out what that plan was and get in line with it. I’ve learned that God is not task-oriented like that “plan of God” mentality. And there are variables; obedience is not so robotic. It’s more relational than that.
3. I would have to say both. Because unlearning hasn’t just been unlearning – it’s been re-learning. God is replacing old mentalities with His perspective. But I had learned some really helpful things in my season of ‘fulltime ministry’ mode. And I’m really thankful for the people who invested in me. I also learned some bogus stuff from the American Evangelical culture at large. So, between learning and unlearning – it’s probably a tie.
1. I learn from chuch is that Worship has grew me closer to God.
2. What I have had to UN-learn, is that I can think for myself and question what is preached and not always agree and in doing that I am not touching God’s anointed.
3. Learning – what is happening to me personally, un-learning has left me confused. Sort of like the earth is going tilted.
Thanks, all, for your comments so far. And others, feel free to chime in. I think for now, I’ll pretty much let your thoughts speak for themselves.
The only thing I will say thus far…it’s interesting you bring up tithing, Gary. This is a hot topic with strong opinions on both sides, and one I hope to write about in the not-too-distant future. (Just trying to get brave enough.) 😀
I definitely look forward to reading it when you are ready to post it.
Gary
1) How to study Scripture
2)Church Leadership
3)Unlearning – thanks for this Jeff, but as Sarah states in unlearning we are learning and my Foundation is a lot stronger.
1) The bible
2) Legalism
3) Unlearning legalism
1) I heard the gospel outside of ‘church’ so when one year later I decided to ‘go’ the main thing that I loved was the worship.
2) I had to relearn that my love and devotion was to Christ first, (not to the organization), and that I could follow HIm and clearly hear His voice. I had to unlearn all the things I had absorbed with the tag ‘christian on it , like tithing, church leadership, what it means to truly live, follow and devote oneself to Him vs to the church
3) I would say that spiritual growth was not related to the ‘church’ i attended, but it was through relationship with Him and has continued to be that way
I went down this road a little way as part of a synchroblog a while back so I shall steal from that post.
Out of the fifteen points I covered, the things which brought me closer to God the most were probably learning (and un-learning the opposite) that:
– Church can take place anywhere at any time. A gathering of two or more people together talking about/thinking about/singing to/praying to/serving God equals church.
and
– Praise and Worship includes a myriad of different expressions to God. Singing is just one. Others include prayers, reflection, meditation, conversation, our own lives, our bodies, our behaviour… absolutely anything can be worship to God. People can sing “worship” songs and not be actually worshipping too. It all depends on the attitude of the heart.
and lastly:
– Being excellent is unnecessary. Being authentic is imperative.
I absolutely have had more spiritual growth because of the things that I learnt while unlearning. It’s like a two-pronged thing – unlearn something and the new thing that you learn will take its place. Without the unlearning there is no room for that.
1. The biggest thing I learned was that Jesus had given himself as a sacrifice so I could become a child of God.
2. The major thing that I had to UNlearn was the idea that my Father required me to do certain things and not do certain things in order to please him and be right with him.
3. Without a doubt, what I UNlearned has had a much larger impact on my spiritual growth. Realizing that the Father loves me no matter what and that I AM right with him because of his grace has been life changing.
1. I learned that God is fully satisfied in me because He is fully satisfied in His Son and I am fully positioned in Him.
2. I have not left the institutional church in my weekly gathering but I had to unlearn that certain theological camps (Reformed) did not have the market cornered on truth, as a matter of fact they have very suspect ecclisology
3. My greatest growth has problem been a hybrid. Because of some to the deep theological truth I have learned from men like Piper, Sproul and MacArthur it transformed the way I saw my self and freed me to pursue Christ in total freedom, while these other guys are showing me that the edification of all the saints (not my local church), the purpose for gathering is edification of all the saints, and that there is no mediator but Christ (Not some prized theologian)has brought freedom in my horizontal relationships.