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Songs Like This One Made Me Want to Leave Church

Sometimes, well-intentioned words pave a path to the exit

Andy Spears
Backyard Church
3 min readJan 7, 2025

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Photo by Edward Cisneros on Unsplash

About a year and a half ago, I started attending a local church.

It’s a very different place than the church I attended growing up. A focus on love and warmth — on welcoming. The very first sermon I heard was about living life one day at a time. A message that resonates with my recovery journey.

While the traditional service I attend features older hymns, I’ve also found a small group for a time to study together. In that group, a friend recommended listening to a Christian radio station. Something positive to focus on during the day. It’s mostly praise music — light, airy, kind of fun. And, I have to admit, the positive vibes tend to spill over into my day.

Here I am, almost 50. Rediscovering church.

Discovering connection in community.

While I was initially hesitant, my weeks seemed to go better after spending a bit of time on Sunday with no phone and focused on a higher power and social connections with a spiritual bent.

Then, though, it happened.

I heard it.

On the recommended radio station.

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Backyard Church
Backyard Church

Published in Backyard Church

Thoughts on applying a 2000 year old religion to 21st Century life

Andy Spears
Andy Spears

Written by Andy Spears

Writer and policy advocate living in Nashville, TN —Public Policy Ph.D. — writes on education policy, consumer affairs, and more . . .

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