If you love Jesus but are unhappy, disappointed, frustrated, disillusioned, or just plain burned-out with church or religion, I have good news for you. There is a problem with church, but it’s neither your fault nor God’s fault and you’re not required to “try harder” to fix it. Furthermore, you’re not alone. More and more evangelical Christians sense that church and religion are somehow at odds with a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The answer to disillusionment is to leave organized religion without losing our faith. And no, that’s not a trick statement: “leaving” doesn’t somehow mean “staying.”

Many Christians who become disillusioned with church naturally assume that the fault must lie with them. If in fact God commands us to go to church, then dropping out amounts to rejecting God’s Word and violating our conscience.

When the disillusionment becomes too great to ignore, Christians face a distressing choice: remain stuck in a bad situation, or drop out of church. Those who choose to remain may look for a different church; stay where they are and struggle to survive; or stay put outwardly but drop out inwardly. Christians who quit church may look for a way to still hold onto Jesus, or throw out the baby with the bathwater and become agnostic or atheist.

God has already given us the “way of escape.” His answer has always been hiding in plain sight in the New Testament.