THE TWELVE STEPS OF CHURCHIANS ANONYMOUS*

1. I admitted I was powerless over the wrong thinking of Churchianity—that my life had become meaningless.

2. I came to believe that a Power greater than myself could deliver me from Churchianity and restore me to Christianity.

3. I made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God, and to seek to understood Him as He truly is.

4. I made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself and my Churchian thinking and actions.

5. I admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs.

6. I work to become entirely ready to have God remove all these defects in my Christianity.

7. I humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.

8. I made a list of all persons I had harmed by elevating the church over Christ, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. I made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. I continue to take personal inventory and when I was wrong promptly admitted it.

11. I seek through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God, praying for knowledge of His will and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, I tried to carry this message to other Churchians, and to elevate Christ over the church in all my affairs.

*Adapted from The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Copyright # A.A. World Services, Inc. Rev.5/9/02

Hi. I'm Christa, and I'm a Churchian.

What's a Churchian? The Urban Dictionary defines Churchian as

“A religious person whose faith revolves around adhering to rules and traditions of organized religions -- namely, institutional versions of Christianity -- rather than around the concepts...that the religion actually teaches.”

For too many years, that's been me. In my mind, “the church” was synonymous with “Christianity”. I was a super good Churchian, and therefore thought that I was a pretty good Christian¹. I was really good at things like going to church and following the rules. I followed all of the rules—the ones God made, and the ones people made. I even read the Bible sometimes. I internalized parts of it, like

“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God our Father is this: that you go to church twice a week, do not drink, do not smoke, and do not listen to secular music.”

and

“By this all men will know you are My disciples, if you use clean language.”

Just kidding. Those aren't in the Bible². Churchians, though, have made a lot of rules that Jesus never made (remember, I know so much about Churchians because I AM ONE). And not only have we made up rules, but we've attributed them to Jesus. And not only have we made up rules and attributed them to Jesus, but we've often elevated our made-up rules above the things Jesus actually did ask us to do. Whoa. I, personally, have internalized so many Churchian rules and concepts that I feel like I need a 12-Step Program to recover from Churchianity and become the Christian that Jesus wants me to be.

Here's something I've been pondering: if it was possible to read the New Testament³ with absolutely no preconceptions (imagine that you know nothing at all about God, Jesus, the Bible, or church—maybe you're an alien), and you could read it with no one telling you which parts to read or interpreting it for you, what conclusions would you draw about the #1 things Jesus wants from you? Would you conclude, as in my fake Bible verse above, that the most important thing is to go to church and avoid alcohol and tobacco? Probably not.

Would you, maybe, conclude that he wants you to know that He loves you, even if you're not a good Churchian? Or that He wants you to love the people around you—including those who don't follow the Churchian rules? Maybe even that he wants you to love those who don't follow the rules that He actually did make?

Maybe you'd conclude that people are more important than rules.

¹It's trendy right now to use the term “Christ-follower”, but since that's what the word Christian means, I'm sticking with that.

²For the real Bible references, click here and here.

³The part of the Bible that records what Jesus did and taught, for any non-Churchians who may be reading.