"I don't trust you"

I'm going to cut to the chase here. It's summed up in the observation that people who call themselves Christians, those who make up the Church, often live lifestyles that don't seem all that different from those who don't follow that faith. If we are the people of God who are sharing an incredible message of hope and love from God to a world that is desperately looking for purpose, meaning, and a future, than why aren't people flocking to our doors?

I'd like to offer some of my own observations as to why this is.

For one thing, as noted in his recent book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Ron Sider submits that when you boil down "accepting" Jesus to responding correctly to a few propositional statements that ask for no committment, don't emphasize a change in heart and doesn't call each professing believer to a life of discipleship, then it's no wonder that we see a "Church" today that resembles it's family tree in little more than name only.

A second point that we might examine is a fact that because we generally view and/or act like the Church is little more than a voluntary organization, not only are we not committing ourselves to Christ Jesus, we are withholding our very selves from the very essence of conversion, that is, transformation.

And a third point, that builds on this last one, is that without discipleship, without transformation, we don't learn what it means to love God by loving others, and we don't let others love us. Hence, we end up not learning to trust each other.

These points are all related, one to the other. If my "faith" is based on responding to what essenially amounts to a survey ("do you believe...you fill in the blank"), and it doesn't seem to be all that different from the health club I just tossed out some cash for, and I might end up looking around and wondering what's supposed to be happening to me? And if it's so easy to join a Church by answering a few propositional questions, and there's nothing particularly expected of me accept show up once a week (but don't worry, you'll only get an occasional phone call to check up on you), then it seems it's actually easier than joining that health club. Honestly, I'm not so sure I see any difference in the lives of many so-called other believers. And if I don't see any difference between the people next to me, if I don't see their lives beyond the one hour I show up on Sunday mornings, then how can I trust them when I struggle with the pressures and temptations of life?

Admittedly, this is harsh. I'm not trying to point the finger at anyone, person or church. My point is that if I'm going to be honest, I think one big reason why the Church in the U.S. of A. is in trouble - and it is - it's because we don't trust each other, nor do we trust God. Let me be honest on a personal note, (oh, this is going to hurt someone's feelings) I don't think I trust the majority of people I gather with for worship on Sundays. Why? Some of it is probably my own issue(s). At the same time, I often get the feeling that a lot of the people that come for services are Sunday Christians. They come for the service, do their obligation, their duty, and out they go to live life on their own terms Monday morning through Saturday night. What do you think?

If I am wrong, then why do most of our churches have people who struggle with both personal discipleship and understanding what it means to be part of the church? I would loved to be proven wrong here. Okay, okay. I'm not trying to pick a fight. What we have here is Jesus' 'wheat and tares.' But those of us who are struggling disciples have to live differently. We need to be real. We need to show ourselves as trustworthy to those who aren't real or aren't sure.

In a [Church] culture that struggles to be faithful to a biblical witness, it's difficult to find love when people are struggling with life's challenges and temptations. How can we, beyond truly having faith that they have honest-to-God given their hearts to God? How can we when we hear the merciless gossip, the comments about certain people, the way people are treated when they're down?

Trust is a big issue for us as American Christians. And I'm not sure it's there. What do you think?