I was at a business lunch recently where this question was posed to us: What is the biggest problem facing the American church?
The question went around the table like a minute hand, and each of my trendy and impossibly groomed colleagues took their turn articulating the church’s main flaw. (side note: I work with writers and graphic designers. When you get these people together, it looks like a Banana Republic photo shoot. For reals.)
My highly educated and well-manicured friends gave verbose but predictable answers. The problem with the church today is that we’re too close to current culture. The church is too flashy. We’ve lost our first love. It’s all about numbers. Et cetera, et cetera, and the required third et cetera.
I dreaded my turn because I have a natural gag reflex to this topic of conversation, and I certainly didn’t want to be known as the new guy who puked on Jade’s Skechers.
So, when all eyes turned to me, I deflected by telling a story about an African bishop I once met who prayed like Moses. (Stories about African bishops who pray like Moses are gold!)
I guess I’ve never understood why Christians like to sit around and discuss “the problem with the church.” Heather and I have never gone to lunch and said, “Let’s talk about the worst parts of our marriage.” I wouldn’t take my daughter for ice cream and say, “Sydney, today we’re going to explore my least favorite ways Mommy does your hair.”
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I think the church is beautiful. Really beautiful. Studying her problems absolutely misses the point. It’s like questioning the way Dostoyevsky punctuated or the way Van Gogh signed his name. What are we talking about here?
Newsflash: the church is imperfect.
Oh, and another newsflash: your church is imperfect.
She is sometimes misrepresented, sometimes overly hyped, sometimes divided. We don’t need YouTube responses, neo-Calvinists or The Elephant Room to tell us that.
But we like to outline the problems because we feel like it's the first step to fixing them. And I guess that makes sense. I just didn’t know it was our job to fix the church. I always assumed the Holy Spirit was in charge of that.
No, I’ve decided that I’ll take her just the way she is. Some may see her as divided; I see her as diverse. Some may view her as immature; I view her as maturing. Some may think she is bending to current culture; I think she is loving current culture.
The church may have flaws, but be careful what you say about her over nachos. She is stunningly beautiful to Jesus. He loves her. He is coming back for her.
She is His bride.
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