Ten Stages

Dan Kimball posted an interesting article on a cyclical journey that many travel. I found it very interesting. Here's the highlights:

1. We begin going to a church, exciting, thrilling, love Jesus, the church is exciting, all things new.
2. We begin getting involved, learn behind the scenes things, feel privileged to know the church staff and leaders more personally, we are totally excited.
3. The thrill of the big church meetings wanes, as it seems more and more predictable.
4. We start to get tired of serving in ministry. It seems routine now and we only see it as fueling the big meeting that we don't really like anymore.
5. Total disillusionment, begin feeling bitter towards church leaders, and wonder why people don't question things more.
6. We silently drop out of church. We read the Bible and early church history and see that they didn't have bigger weekly meetings in the early church. We read "house church" literature and begin thinking this is the real New Testament church
7. We realize it isn't too easy leading people. Even in a small house church.
8. We stop going to any church of any kind. We forget it all. Watch a lot of TV.
9. We begin missing other Christians, and regular fellowship.
10. So, we slowly go back to our original church.

And his comments on the article:

* Due to the rather large amount of emails I am getting from people about this post and asking questions - I wanted to say this is not an entirely real situation, but one made up from lots of different experiences and stories. Nor do I think everyone has to go through all these stages. Nor do I think everyone always ends up back at their original church. Sadly, some churches should never be returned to!