This is an excerpt from Ruth Haley Barton’s upcoming book, Leading a Transforming Community: Foundations, Practices, and Strategies for Opening to God Together. Available October 13, 2026.
Recently I have been wading uncomfortably through a book titled A Churchless Faith: Faith Journeys Beyond the Churches by Alan Jamieson. He describes in painful detail the journeys of many “dones”—those who consider themselves Christians who are still on a serious spiritual journey but who are “done” with the organized church and have no intention of returning.
He acknowledges that his title A Churchless Faith is both a catchphrase and a misnomer. It is a catchphrase to identify a group of people who see themselves as people of faith but who are also completely alienated from the institutionalized church. But it is also a misnomer, he says, because “all followers of Christ (Christians, from the Greek christianoi = ‘Christ people’) are, by definition, part of the ‘church’—the house or community of the Lord (from Greek Kyriake = belonging to Kyrios, Lord).” That is the church universal, the church made up of all those who belong to Christ.”
The designation “a churchless faith” is intended to push us to consider that the groups formed by what he calls “church leavers” are offering new ways of being the local church.
Whether we are people of faith who have given up on church or not, we all need to be gathering with other fellow pilgrims somehow as part of our commitment to the ongoing process of spiritual transformation.
As unlikely as it might seem, could it be that those who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious” are early innovators (perhaps even prophets) who are drawing attention to the fact that God is calling forth a new thing through their holy discontent about the church as it currently exists?
What if their questions are not simply criticisms to be answered but invitations to deeper discernment?
Perhaps one of the most faithful responses is not defensiveness, but a willingness to discern what God might be saying through those we are most tempted to dismiss.
Before moving on, pause long enough to notice your own response to these questions:
What feelings arise in you when you encounter those who have become disillusioned with the church, and what might those feelings reveal?
Where might God be inviting you to listen more carefully to voices you have been tempted to dismiss?
© Ruth Haley Barton, 2026. Adapted from Leading a Transforming Community: Foundations, Practices, and Strategies for Opening to God Together (InterVarsity Press).
Be among the first to read Ruth Haley Barton’s forthcoming book, Leading a Transforming Community: Foundations, Practices, and Strategies for Opening to God Together, and discover how communities can become places where spiritual transformation takes root and flourishes.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.