How I Left The Institutional Church

by Dave Kahle

I was converted to Christ at age 24.  My spiritual trajectory after that was probably pretty much like a lot of folks.  I meshed into the church culture quickly and fell into the expected routine of attendance three times a week – Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening.

     I grew quickly, and since I was educated to be a teacher, I soon found myself teaching Sunday school classes – at first for teenagers and later for adults.  While I didn’t recognize it at the time, the seeds of discontent with the institutional church were being sown even then.

Sowing Seeds

I remember looking at the subject of alcohol usage in the Bible in the teenage class, and concluding the Bible doesn’t condemn alcohol usage, but rather condemns drunkenness.  I got called in to face the elders on that one.  It didn’t matter what the Bible taught, I was told, this church doesn’t condone alcohol use.

     Later, in teaching an adult class, I remarked that Colossians 3:22  (Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.)  taught a principle that should be applied to employees and employers.

     The congregation was in the Northern suburbs of Detroit, and the elders were all union members at the auto factories.  Again, I was told that the verse didn’t apply to them, that the union was the go-between, and that they had to follow the dictates of the union.

     At one time, the congregation to which we belonged was between pastors.  I taught the adult Sunday school class.  Now, to put this in perspective, I have a B. Education, and M.A. in teaching, and was rated as a “Master teacher” in the few years that I spend working for the public education system.   On the day that the new pastor was hired, he approached me prior to the worship service, thanked me for teaching the adult class, and indicated that he would take over. I had the distinct feeling of being a second-class Christian.  I was the B team, and now that the A team had arrived, I was relegated to the bench.

     After we moved to Grand Rapids, we found a small independent congregation and were soon sucked into major roles.  I began teaching the adult Sunday school class, and Coleen, my wife, took over the crises counseling.  Within a few months, I was made an elder.  This story is told in much more detail in my book, Is the Institutional Church Really the Church?  The short story is that the pastor announced at a meeting one day that “We were going to be part of a family event.

     We could either birth a new congregation or be part of a nasty divorce.”  The choice was up to us.  He had been maneuvering behind the scenes and had a third of the congregation ready to follow him.  That was on Thursday.  On Sunday, they were gone.

     At this point in my life, that was the most underhanded, manipulative, and deceitful thing I had ever had done to me.  That is until we trusted a couple of missionaries.

     This story is told in more detail in another of my books, The Heart of a Christian Sales Person. During these years, Coleen and I made 10 self-funded short-term mission trips to..... CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE