Despite what you might, legitimately, take away from the reading of this blog, I don't live my life constantly haranguing against the institutional church.
But, I do think that the most powerful version of my testimony is my explanation of my journey from tradition-bound, consumption-focused churchianity into my current pursuit of the righteousness preached in the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament, by Jesus and the early disciples.
Honestly, my story glazes over the eyes of most church loving people, even many of those people who live for Jesus in spite of their deep live for the institution.
But, for people...and our world is filled with them...who were hurt by the church or who have concluded that church is about things other than Jesus, my story, along with my passionate convictions, not only makes sense but seem to fascinate and, I think, even give hope and spiritual clarity to people who'd love Jesus if they could find a way to do it that didn't feel icky or just wrong.
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I've been thinking of myself as an APEST prophet for a long time. But, in a sense, I'm an apostle of a simple, Jesus-only, no extraneous, institutional bells and whistles gospel.
I will say that the size of the mission field for the preaching of this gospel is HUGE.
There are many people around who like Jesus but hate the institution that blasts his name through the ether.
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And, it frustrates me and it crushes my heart that the, well, denomination I love insists on foisting church on people, ignoring the huge mission field it helped create by forcing people to take institutionalized Christianity or leave Jesus.
We must repent.
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