"just allow myself to feel the loss"... beautifully written. I so appreciate your gift for putting your experiences into words. Thank you for helping me understand my own experiences on a deeper level.
Beautiful post. The loss of community that comes from separating from church can be devastating. For individuals but also families, especially if one partner is farther along the path than the other. Finding/creating a community post-church is often quite difficult work that requires real skills.
Here's more of what I shared in a recent post:
A congregation can often serve as a built-in community, a group of friends, that requires little effort to create or maintain. The only problem is once we leave this community we often leave many of those relationships behind (whether that’s involuntarily or by choice.)
We all need trusted companions. Research has shown the positive impact of deep friendship on longevity, and the detriments to our health from loneliness. Good friends literally keep us healthier (and alive!)
But to have great friends we usually have to be a great friend. And friendship is a skill. Supporting others when they need it most, in the best way possible, is a skill. If we want to have incredible friends, we must learn to be an incredible friend.
Lovely lovely, Gabby! We planted a church in our east Nashville living room in 1992 and a core group grew up together in that small (eventually slowly growing) church. As we all left it around the same week (of 9-11-01) - the bonds remained strong for years, until our second kid came out and people just did NOT know what to do with us as a family. My wife and I will still at times wistfully remember all the time spent with all of them - but I am thankful we have each other. We know our experience. We have tried to stay true to ourselves.
“To see how far God’s grace could go. (Turns out it goes infinitely further than the Church’s.)”
The healing deep breath I took reading that 😭💛
"just allow myself to feel the loss"... beautifully written. I so appreciate your gift for putting your experiences into words. Thank you for helping me understand my own experiences on a deeper level.
Beautiful post. The loss of community that comes from separating from church can be devastating. For individuals but also families, especially if one partner is farther along the path than the other. Finding/creating a community post-church is often quite difficult work that requires real skills.
Here's more of what I shared in a recent post:
A congregation can often serve as a built-in community, a group of friends, that requires little effort to create or maintain. The only problem is once we leave this community we often leave many of those relationships behind (whether that’s involuntarily or by choice.)
We all need trusted companions. Research has shown the positive impact of deep friendship on longevity, and the detriments to our health from loneliness. Good friends literally keep us healthier (and alive!)
But to have great friends we usually have to be a great friend. And friendship is a skill. Supporting others when they need it most, in the best way possible, is a skill. If we want to have incredible friends, we must learn to be an incredible friend.
More here: https://reorder.substack.com/p/how-do-we-move-beyond-thoughts-and
I'm grateful people like you guys and others are part of the solution and are helping people find their way.
Lovely lovely, Gabby! We planted a church in our east Nashville living room in 1992 and a core group grew up together in that small (eventually slowly growing) church. As we all left it around the same week (of 9-11-01) - the bonds remained strong for years, until our second kid came out and people just did NOT know what to do with us as a family. My wife and I will still at times wistfully remember all the time spent with all of them - but I am thankful we have each other. We know our experience. We have tried to stay true to ourselves.