Why I'm Still Here: Reimagining Church, Belonging, and Brokenness - w/ Izzy Ray (Why We're Leaving the Church Series, Part 3)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2016

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How the church can still be a place of healing, transformation, and deep belonging—even when it's broken. Part three of the "Why We're Leaving the Church" series dives deep into personal stories across generations, offering a raw and hopeful conversation on why many still choose to stay, participate, and even lead within the church despite its failures and contradictions.

Mike Erre, Andy, and Izzy reflect on the struggles, disappointments, and transformative beauty of church life. From hypocritical leadership and personal trauma to unexpected healing through meaningful community, this episode explores how reimagining our expectations of church can lead to renewed engagement rather than abandonment.

Key Takeaways: • Reframing Church Beyond Institutions – Following Jesus means belonging to his body, even if we walk away from institutional expressions of church. • The Healing Power of Authentic Community – Izzy shares her journey from spiritual burnout to renewed faith through genuine relationships and shared vulnerability. • Corporate Worship as Resistance and Formation – Worshiping together with diverse people disrupts individualism and reminds us we're not at the center of the story. • Admitting Complicity and Staying Present – Mike discusses how recognizing his own role in perpetuating unhealthy church patterns keeps him humble and committed to transformation from within. • Ordinary Faithfulness Over Flash and Production – The path forward isn't about escaping discomfort or imperfection but choosing depth, presence, and the messy, transformative work of relational community.

Guest Highlights: • Izzy – A worship leader in her twenties who vulnerably shares her painful church experience and the surprising reasons she stays—including relational healing, meaningful worship, and the beautiful weirdness of spiritual family. • Andy – Unpacks his own journey out of and back into church life and the spiritual discipline of staying engaged in community despite disillusionment.

Resources Mentioned: • Why People Are Leaving the Church (Article Series) • Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller • 1 Corinthians (Letter by Paul) – Specifically Paul's critique of the Corinthian church, reminding us the early church was messy too. • Ivan Illich Quote – "If you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story."

Share your story with us—why have you stayed? What keeps you coming back to the body of Christ? Email us at hello@voxpodcast.com.

Let's reimagine together what it means to be the church.

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Music by Timothy John Stafford Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

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We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, ladies and gentlemen, I've got to lead with some heavy news.
0:24.1	Andy has been exposed as a hypocrite because here's what happens. See, when we're on, when we've pressed record, he's all laughing and
0:32.3	positive and nice. But right before we went on, he looked at me and he said, you're a manatee with
0:37.9	clown makeup. That's what he said. And to which Izzy said, what? That was rude. Yeah, I said
0:43.7	that was rude. And to which Andy said, what? Nah. Exactly. And then, and then, so, so you can
0:52.4	see, I mean, Jesus, Jesus would confront this. And so I feel see, I mean, Jesus would confront this.
0:57.2	And so I feel, I feel very, very good.
0:59.6	Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
1:03.3	Wherever you are, hello, if you're working out, please work out for me.
1:08.4	I hope I get some credit for this.
1:10.2	If you're driving, keep your eyes open and your
1:12.7	hands at 10 and 2 at all time. And if you're roaming around the house, I'm sorry. We've got part
1:20.3	three of why people are leaving the church, but we haven't. So we've spent a couple of episodes kind of going through
1:30.8	this article written a couple of years ago and just reacting to it more or less. And we've gotten
1:39.1	feedback that's like, yes, yes, yes, yes. Another feedback that's like, you know, well, my church is
1:43.8	awesome. And okay, we're not speaking about's like, you know, well, my church is awesome.
1:44.4	And okay, we're not speaking about your church. We're just talking about the church in America.
1:50.0	And we're oversimplifying and we're over generalizing. But there does seem to be some, something about the general
1:59.7	dissatisfaction with the institutional forms of American
2:04.4	Christianity. And just to give the distinction that we started with last time
2:09.1	before, Izzy, we'll start with you, but no one, no follower of Jesus can leave the
2:14.8	church, right? This is who you are. This is an identity statement.
	...

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