Outgrowing Church

Why are so many people drifting away from today's churches? John Killinger suggests that part of the problem is that they have personally outpaced the thinking and understanding of the church, so that they no longer find it adequate as a social structure for the celebration of their faith. In their attempts to find Jesus and his teachings relevant within the new culture, they strike out on their own or adhere to para-Christian organizations that retain an allegiance to Jesus without the baggage of the traditional institution. Killinger, a former big-steeple minister and theologian, describes how he himself has been forced essentially to abandon the church in order to remain faithful to the beliefs and ideals that first drew him into it. ""[This] is a personal and passionate chronicle of Killinger's journey beyond the formulas and concepts of many contemporary expressions of Christianity. He speaks for thousands who yearn to tie truth and life together. His challenge is for some part of institutional Christianity to listen and to respond."" --John Shelby Spong, author of The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic ""John is not writing as a critic but as a critical lover. This book is a transparent reflection of his spiritual journey that has prompted him to be a more faithful follower of Jesus, while also challenging present-day followers of Jesus to rethink church as we have come to know it. This is an important book for the ministry practitioner who desires his or her ministry to make a difference in the world."" --Robert Hundley, Senior Pastor, First United Methodist Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan John Killinger pastored First Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg, Virginia, First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, and Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. He taught at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary, and was Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Samford University. He is the author of more than seventy books, including Ten Things I Learned Wrong from a Conservative Church (2002), The Changing Shape of Our Salvation (2007), and Hidden Mark: Exploring Christianity's Heretical Gospel (2010).