Why I left the "church"

I stopped going to "church" over two years ago-----and I make NO apologies for that.  I was reared in a Methodist church and have attended non-denominational churches in my adulthood.  As I grow older, I realize they are not for me---at least not in the traditional form.  I am done with repeated liturgies...DONE....I am done with the bands and the flashing lights....DONE....I am done with the "entrapments".  Why do churches think they need all that "stuff"?  I surmise it is to draw members;  numbers seem to be what drives them these days.  For over two years I cooked for a homeless ministry on Sundays; now I carry on with one of those shut-ins in a poor area of town.

Think back to the church that Jesus founded.  How did He "do church"?  From what I recall, His church met in small groups in homes.  People communed together and did not exclude.  From my experience in too many churches, there are established cliques, and they exclude people; my personal experience as a divorced woman was that I was virtually always excluded.  The focus was always on "in-tact, traditional families".  Others were not valued.  Another example of an exclusionary process was the way bible school was done in the summer.  Kids could sign up to be in groups with their friends.  Whoa!  Where did that leave visitors and those without close ties in the church?  Left out, that's where.  The whole thing has left a bitter taste in my mouth for "church" as we know it.  I don't know that I will ever heal from the damage that was done. 

The way I spend my Sundays for Priscilla is far more important to God than sipping coffee or listening to the band warm up.  I would not go back to the old, "new" way of church. 

Go here to read why people are leaving church in the droves.  The writer is spot-on!  http://johnpavlovitz.com/2014/08/15/church-heres-why-people-are-leaving-you-part-1/