People come to a place of "detoxing from church" for a variety of reasons, some self-induced (our own danged fault), some simply a growing awareness that we've changed and the church hasn't, and some because of abusive church situations.

As more and more friends of mine -- and new-found blogging companions -- began describing their journeys out of their "church left behind" (CLB -- hat tip to Brother Maynard for coining this TLA [three letter acronym]), I wrote an article entitled Detoxing From Church in 2003. I had just started blogging, and if I'd known at the time how many people would read and link to the article, I would have (A) developed it further, or (B) run screaming into the woods.

The whole intent of creating the article in the first place was to address the necessity of detoxing for some people, and how to process this journey in a healthier manner than I'd seen in some circles. Strangely enough, despite this redemptive approach, a ministry called Genesis 2K linked to the article with the warning "BRACE YOURSELF, you may not agree with them but it's important to understand the Dechurched perspective". Originally, in 2005, this same article was linked by PowerOnHigh ministries, but two years later, it has apparently been removed from that site as of May 2007.

I've included the original article here, now re-titled Detox "Classic", although unlike the New Coke debacle in 1985, I haven't messed with the original content.

Following the original Detoxing article are various blog posts from 2007 which detail some of the issues that precipitated my own Road To Detox, some Detox Discoveries that I learned along the way, a warning about the all-too-common pitfall of Crabby Detox, and finally, my own "coming back to life" as the detoxing journey ran its course and I found myself Re-Surfacing. You may find echoes of your own journey in each of these.

I hope these articles are helpful to those of you who are experiencing a season of detoxing from church. I hope you can find some encouragement here that you're not alone, and also avoid some of the pitfalls and traps along the way. And whatever your post-detox journey looks like, know that you are walking a road with many Journeymates.