Para does not mean "instead of"

Said at Southern has a podcast of an interview with Derek Webb up today that I thought was interesting.

One of the things that caught my attention was Derek's account of how he "got saved" and the next few years that followed. After having been converted at a Young Life camp, he got involved in Young Life. Nobody encouraged him to find a local church to belong to and the Young Life club meetings, for all intents and purposes, became the "church" that he attended. It wasn't until a couple of years later that he began to get involved with a *real* church where the Word was preached, the Sacraments were administered, etc.

My collegiate experience was very similar. I was raised in the Lutheran church (LCMS), but I got connected with The Navigators early in my freshman year. I got saved (re-saved?¹) through a Navigator's Bible study after I saw the Bridge Illustration and realized that I'd never had a vivid conversion experience when I had "jumped across" from death to life. When faced with the option of choosing heaven or choosing hell, I made the no-brainer decision to jump across, to pass from death to life.

Following my conversion, I became very active in the Navigators circles. I got on the leadership team, I drafted up my before-during-and-after testimony, and I attended every Friday night meeting they offered. Church was the last thing on my mind. Well, that's not quite true. Having come from a "liturgical" church, and having never been coaxed into "making a decision," in my mind organized religion (i.e. church) was an enemy of the gospel. We had our own fellowship (Friday nights). We had our own sacramental system (illustrations and scripture memory systems). We had our own elders (Nav staff) and deacons (student leaders). The only time we really needed mainline churches was when we needed funds for our international missions projects.

If you think this is a rant against the Navigators, it's not. I had so many opportunities for spiritual growth during my –ahem– five years of college that I only wish I had even a tenth of those same opportunities today. I merely want to float the idea that para-church organizations would do well to emphasize early and often that the word "para" (i.e. alongside) is there for a reason. I'm wondering if there is a way for us to balance the role of para-church organizations in a way that they compliment the work of local churches instead of standing in competition with them.

I'd be curious to hear some observations from other post-collegiate-ministry folks. Is it just me, or is this a pretty common experience?