The Diminishing of the Divine: Why I Stopped Going to Church and Started Being the Church

By Eric Apffel

The Diminishing of the Divine is an insightful commentary on the current standing of the Christian church and how it has in many ways lost its original purposes as God intended. Noting that the church has become increasingly guided by human will power and not Gods Spirit, the author invites readers to identify the symptoms of the modern-day church and find the salve in Gods Spirit and original design.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973620396

Eric Apffel

Eric Apffel married out of his league in 1985. He is convinced that in his brokenness he is loved by God, is made right by God and used by God- just like you.

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Copyright © 2018 Eric Apffel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Verses Taken from the King James Bible.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Interior photo: C.J. Webber.

Author photo: Korena Webber.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2038-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2039-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018902063

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/27/2018

For my beloved Korena, Christopher, Elise, Tysen, and Conrad.

For what can be.

And, for what I’m convinced, was meant all along.

Contents

Preface

D.i.y.

Bold and Italicized

Red Envelope

Chapter 1   Propositions and Problems

Propositions

Problems

Codependent, Infatuated and Distracted

Chapter 2   Codependent

The Greeks

Whole New Game

Each One of You

Still Crazy

God In Man

Return of the Temple Veil

Symptom 1: W.W.J.D.

Symptom 2: Sacred Ducks

This Is Real

Symptom 3: Tryouts

Symptom 4: Busy, Busy, Busy

Symptom 5: Black And White

Symptom 6: Bound Up

Symptom 7: The Leadership Fallacy

Sodalic And Modalic

Yeah, But …

The Thing Is …

What If …

Chapter 3   Infatuated

Desire

God in Man

The Man

My Guy

Dead End

Letting Go

Yeah, But …

The Thing Is …

What If …

Chapter 4   Distracted

K.i.s.s.

Watchers

Behave Yourself

Broken Wells

Knowing Stuff

God’s Cash Flow Problem

Yeah, But…

The Thing Is …

What If …

Chapter 5   A New, Not-new Zeitgeist

In The Beginning

Looks Like

Graceland

Bonoesque

Yeah, But …

What If

An Epilogue of Disclosures, Disclaimers, and Postscripts

Glossary

A Bibliography of Sorts

Preface

My questions are getting better, like my questions about life with God.

As a little kid, I vividly remember sitting in our regular spot in big church, with my blended family filling up an entire pew in the Presbyterian church sanctuary. I remember being so sleepy that I would fantasize about napping somewhere behind the choir, wondering what it would be like to curl up and take a snooze in an imaginary private, dark corner. A few years down the road, my questions progressed along the lines of wondering what the odds were of a certain girl in the church high school group going out with me.

Although my mind still is flush with all kinds of questionable clutter, some of my questions are finally causing me to think on a deeper level. After years of attending quite a few churches, one question emerged that I could never shake. At first the question crept into my mind only occasionally. Then over time, it came to me more frequently. Then it eventually got to the point that every single Sunday morning while seated on my pew this persistent question would keep rattling around in my head.

Was it always like this?

That question went through various forms, but its essence was the same: Is this church service that I am attending what Jesus had in mind? Is this really what He envisioned for us? Is this what the first followers did? Does all this resemble what Paul outlined for those early believers? Things like Directors of Ministry, robes, Sunday school classes, clergy, laity, forty-five-minute sermons, fifteen minutes of worship, pulpits, pews and church memberships – are all these things what Jesus had in mind when His followers gather?

I was raised in the Protestant tradition, which naturally led to questions related to that Reformation wing of Christianity. I imagine that if I was raised in a Catholic or Orthodox family, my questions would look a little different. Possibly my questions would have been more around the papacy, cathedrals, incense, vestments, icons, and such. But regardless of the Christian tradition, I tend to think my questions would still be around the central issue: Was it always like this?

I’ve settled in my mind that I don’t need to fear questions. Rather, I consider them as guides and even catalysts of maturing (Prov. 18:17). Challenging questions from dear friends and professionals have been some of the most potent agents of transformation in my life.

It is worth acknowledging that simply because something is done in the institutional church today that was not done in the early Church, that does not make that activity unkosher. It all depends on what that something is. Believers need to diligently distinguish between those things the institutional church does that reinforces the Father’s intent and design of the Church, and those things that diminish His intent and design.

This question—What diminishes the Church, and what reinforces it?—seemed like an important enough thing that I decided to go deep and let it take me down this road of discovery. That question, and the myriad of other questions born out of that original, eventually galvanized into a lightning bolt of new thought for me.

And it was here on this new road of discovery that things started dramatically shifting in my life with God and others.

D.I.Y.

As you read through this little book, you will likely notice it is lean on fully flushed-out arguments. The ideas in this book and their supporting evidence are not exhaustive and certainly not scholarly. Supporting scriptures are not referenced like a laundry list. I even debated whether to include any scripture references at all. Rather than the reason of simply annoying folks, I have three reasons for this.

1. I am admittedly not a teacher. I believe my gift is shepherding, and it is out of this gift that my passion burns for the bride to live to