About this site

Christianity is dying in the US, with survey data showing growing numbers of de-churched Christians and declining numbers of active churches. Most of the stated reasons seem to miss the deeper root cause, which is, when we look on the surface of modern Christianity, we don’t always see what Jesus had in mind. Rather, we often see the graffiti of a manmade version of Christianity. This graffiti mars Jesus’ truth, painting Christianity in man’s image rather than God’s image.

When a person’s spirit leaves their body, that person is dead. So it is with manmade Christianity and manmade churches, which are dying because in many cases, the Holy Spirit hasn’t been let in the door. Yet, maybe the death of manmade versions of Christianity will leave room for Jesus’ Christianity to make a comeback. That’s what this website is all about—to help Jesus get His Christianity back.

About CJ Penn

After becoming an almost-every-Sunday Christian churchgoer in his mid-thirties, CJ Penn eventually volunteered for the challenging task of helping lead the church junior high youth group. Then, in his late-forties, CJ left church and joined the ranks of the de-churched. He soon discovered he wasn’t alone.

Shortly after becoming another church refugee, CJ fell into writing as a way to express his devotion to Jesus, a devotion that, if anything, grew after he stopped attending church. This devotion motived CJ to follow the advice of his favorite Christian author, Andrew Murray, and tangibly (not just symbolically) surrender himself to Jesus. He’d gotten tired of trying, and often failing, to lead his life in any way that felt meaningful and beneficial to others, especially those he loves. And he figured Jesus could do a lot better job of leading his life than he could. Besides, with respect to his life and behavior, at this point CJ would rather follow than lead.

CJ’s writing first took the form of a blog he started back in 2008—which has slowly evolved into the website you’re currently looking at. Then, just as the pandemic erupted, CJ published his first book. Since then, he’s continued working on multiple books, which remain his preferred form of what many call outreach.

More recently, CJ retired from his longtime technology career, finally allowing him to devote much more time to his writing. He no longer gets up at 4:30am to squeeze in some prayer and writing before heading off to his day job, and he’s grateful for that. In fact, “gratitude” pretty much captures how he feels about his life, his family, his friends, and his relationship with God and Jesus.