What's Wrong With The Church?

This is one of those loaded questions. It's the kind that if I go out to the street and start asking people, I might not like what I hear. Not because I would necessarily disagree with what I would hear - there might actually be some really insightful comments - but because I might agree.

One comment I hear from time to time is this: "The Church is made up of hypocrites!" And you know what? It's true. Everyone who darkens the doorway, everyone who takes up space on a pew, everyone who stands up and sings God's praises - all are hypocrites - including the person who levels the accusation toward the Church while waving their own self-righteous finger from across the street. Yep, we're all hypocrites - including me. And it's not hard to understand why. It just takes some honesty, and some grace - two things which many both inside and outside of the Church often either ignore or forget.

How can I say this?, you might ask; afterall, I work in a church, don't I? Well, yeah, I do, and yeah, I have no problem saying this. Afterall, what is a 'hypocrite' anyhow? Well, I'm not going to run over to my Webster's 2: New Riverside University Dictionary and look up the official definition, but we all know a hypocrite is someone who says one thing, and then does another; they're a person who is inconsistent in the way they believe, live, and talk. And that pretty much describes each and every one of us. That's where the honesty comes in. You and I are hypocrites. How can we not be? No one I know is always, 100% consistent, good or bad. And this is where the grace comes in. We need to forgive each other [hint, hint: as God has already forgiven us in Jesus Christ], and cut each other some slack. We can't keep holding each other's past hypocrisies over one another's heads, waiting for the other to screw up yet again so that we can feel better about ourselves. We need to let God's grace come into us and transform us to be more like Christ Jesus. But here's the caveat: neither should we use grace as an excuse to be even more of a hypocrite than we already are.

Okay, so back to my original question. What's wrong with the Church? We have given ourselves as a Church culture over to hypocrisy, and we don't seem to mind it. Let me just say that what I mean is that we have a lot of people who seem to take for granted that the Church was established by Jesus Christ as new and redeemed community of people who are called to worship the One and True God, and as part of that community, we are to live radical lives that show God is real and at work in our lives. So far no problems. Unfortunately, we have learned to settle for less. And on some level, I put myself in this mix, too. While the pastor is preaching on anything from the Lord's prayer to different aspects of faith, people are merely warming the pews with their bums, lapping up every word from the pulpit, and then walking out, not to darken the door for another seven days. And that leaves me to wonder, "did you hear a blessed thing?"

Okay, so you can sense I'm a little put off by this. I am. But don't confuse my frustration with bitterness. I'm not talking about whacking people over the heads and tossing them out. No, I'm talking about challenging people's understanding of what it means to be the Church. We're called to live beyond ourselves, including the typical Main Line Philadelphia Suburban mindset that is so preoccupied with the Self, high SAT scores for buffy, driving the most expensive luxury car, and making sure biff jr.'s weekly schedule is so over-packed that by the time the best colleges in America accept him, he'll be so burned out that the parties he's been getting drunk at all year won't even be exciting to him anymore. And no, I'm not bitter. How can I be bitter when I know the God of the universe is waiting for His Church to wake up and be that community of redeemed people? But I am frustrated.

So here's at least part of the solution to this problem: take your part in this redeemed community more seriously than your membership at LA Fitness or your child's sports team. Find your small group, where you'll be known and cared for. Find your ministry, where you can exercise your gifts, talents, and abilities for God's glory and the benefit of others. Take your faith and your calling as God's chosen seriously, and stop treating it like something akin to the latest mailer from the local cable monopoly to have three months of reduced cable before it goes back to its ridiculously overpriced cost.

If we, you and me, the Church, could get this part in order, I think we'd shut up a lot of people. And you know what? We might even impress them enough to want to warm the pew next to us. What do you think?