Done

 44Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45and sold their possessions and goods, and dividedp them among all, as anyone had need. 46So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2: 44 - 47 NKJV

They're called the "dones."  They are christians who have grown accostomed to or grown up in the institutional church but for one reason or another have suddenly felt themselves unfed, misunderstood or...alone.  Back in 2009 I suddenly found myself in that catagory of the dones.  My mother had recently overcome a brain tumor and my own world was suddenly turned upside down.  Now, I had been attending the very same church for a long time, so I had seen many others come through its doors only to leave and never return.  For some time I saw people such as this as uncommitied to anything God.  Not like me.  No, I came to church every sunday, I ushered, I tithed and I played the good christian soldier.  I wasn't done...not yet.  I'm not sure of the date, but there came a time when going to church didn't carry that same importance as it once did for me.  I began to miss a sunday, then two.  Even though I always came back, when I did I encountered more than my share of bewilderment as to how I could "give up" on God.  Was I giving up on God?  I didn't think so.  Despite having gone to the same church for so long, I somehow felt stuck in the same place.  Funny, but it's almost like I was expecting, as the apostle Paul claimed, to advance in my faith {Galations 1:14}.  Instead, I was in that same place I was in so many years before, as a baby christian looking to be fed.  I wanted more.  I was done.  I'm sure that there are many more out there who followed the same path as I have, but this was just the one I chose.  I was fortunate for the friendship of a pastor from the church I had just left who took every opportunity to allow me to grow in Christ.  I realized that this was exactly what I had been seeking in the church but never received it.  Through all of the sermons and classes I ever attended, I'd never come to know Christ as I did once I became a done.

9Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor.10For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. 11Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?12Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Eccleasiates 4: 9 - 12 NKJV

I asked a friend of mine this week who had followed me into the dones not too long ago.  In his own words, he claimed that he got "bored" with going to church...another done was born.  I'm guessing that my own my situation could easily be seen as the same as my friend.  I remember sitting in many a sunday sermon impatiently looking at my watch as the pastor served up another speech about being closer to God, or the power of prayer or whatever the buzzword was for the week.  Boring.  In retrospect, I have often asked myself where was Jesus in all of this?  Well, I didn't know it at the time, but Jesus was the one there all along waiting on me.  Go figure.  Was church more than just a weekly sermon?  If it was I was sure looking for it.  The closest I got to feeling excited about the church I was going to would come when the men of the church would get semi energized for one of our mens conferences.  Maybe now I'd be filled with more than I was getting in church...nope.  The only difference bewteen my regular church service and Promise Keepers was that the conference had more people.  That's no knock on the Promise Keepers, it just wasn't what I was looking for.  To me, there had to be more to God than a weekly lecture and a list of rules to follow in order to be a good person.  In my heart I knew that Jesus had something better for me.  I also noticed something else once I was done, freedom.  No longer was I bound to those rules of the church that would somehow make me that much more righteous.  Now I was experiencing God on my own terms, one on one with no pulpit pounder middle man in between.  The God I came know once I left was different from the one I left behind in the empty pews of the church.  This God never made me feel guilty if I took a sunday off, never condemned me after I stumbled.  I was no longer a member.  I a son...and I was done.

11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13: 11 - 13 NKJV

~Scott~