Several years ago when I started questioning my beliefs, I began to feel lonely because everyone in my circle of friends thought much the same way I did. When I continued to change, it felt like I was wandering out into the Desert.
Eventually, I resigned from the church that I was pastoring, and started attending a bigger church. A couple of things happened there that were harmful, but mostly church was just very triggering for us because of everything that happened in the 20 years of ministry. So we decided to take a break from organized religion.
In 2020, around the beginning of the pandemic, Laura and I decided to evaluate whether we were making the right choice. We wrote a book about everything we were processing, and gave it away as a PDF for almost 2 years. After my stroke, we read it to each other on the way to and from Kansas City and came to the conclusion that we should publish it.
That book is called Out Into the Desert: Thriving Outside Organized Religion. It is an honest evaluation of organized religion in the 21st century.
Some of the things it considers:
* With the focus on perspective members, are other hurting members lost in the shuffle?
* Are we addicted to church and religion?
* Where does all the money go?
* Is the church really healing our trauma?
* Would Jesus go to church?
* Is organized religion the best model of community?
* Do we really need the services the church provides? Are the available elsewhere?
* Is it possible to thrive outside of organized religion?
We hope you will come along with us and step back from organized religion and do three evaluation.
It’s been about three years since we started this evaluation, and we are more sure than ever we made the right decision.
Be where you are,
Be who you are,
Be at peace
Karl Forehand
Photo by Jeremy Bishop: https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhoutte-of-a-man-2923595/
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