Friday, December 1, 2006

Post-Presbyterian and Proud! (or... Dechurched and Delighted!)

I pedaled my bike past LPC today... It really doesn't seem like "home" anymore so I guess that makes me officially dechurched and post-Presbyterian! Was bopping around the internet and ran across a reference (on faithworks.com which is where I found the picture also) to the work of Alan Jamieson, sociologist who studies people who left the institutional church. He compares them to "travelers who abandon a luxury liner in mid-cruise. They grow tired of the endless buffets and entertainment, the carefully designed activities, or the captain who makes all decisions about the ship's speed and direction. Longing to experience what is not on the itinerary, they sell all they have to buy a small boat and leave the well-traveled sea lanes for uncharted waters... The danger of going it alone is still safer than the scripted sameness of conformity."

So I can relate to hopping on the little boat and setting out for uncharted waters, but thinking of LPC as a "luxury liner" is a bit of a stretch! It's more like the S.S. Minnow from Gilligan's Island. (Hmm... will it meet the same fate? Stay tuned.) Here's to the small boat ride, new song, traveling the road, and whatever other metaphors I can pile on this blog.
--BB

1 comment:

Rev SS said...

Amen! ... for my comments see The Portal blog ... S