Last week I wrote that I believe church is meant to be a safe place where we come and refocus, get some room in our soul to breathe, as we re-center our lives on Jesus. I believe church is meant to be a place where we are reminded of God’s mercy and his love for us, and where our thinking is reshaped by the truth of the scriptures. So why isn’t this always the case for us? Why isn’t church the place we want to be when life isn’t working for us? Why is the landscape of America littered with so many people who have been hurt or wounded by the church? Why are there so many that once attended church and participated in the life of the church no longer attending? Obviously this is a complicated issue and I am not necessarily qualified to answer for the entire church, but I do have a perspective that I don’t think folks who have been marginalized and disillusioned by the church may have heard.

There are three fundamental areas that we who make up the church seem to be quite lacking in understanding about. They are:

1. Sin: How deep it runs in us and how dishonest we tend to be about it. It is interesting to note that it is only sinners who qualify for salvation.
2. Our genuine lack of understanding about the cross. There is a natural avoidance of the cross and its message, but without the cross there is no grace available.
3. Just what Good News the gospel really is, how amazing the grace, the gift we have been given in Jesus Christ.

I believe when we do not understand these aspects of the Christian life, it then becomes impossible to love others the way Christ has loved us.

Please keep in mind that this is not a seminary lecture series but a 350-500 word blog. I am not attempting to be exhaustive in my treatment of any of these aspects of the Christian life but rather to give language to some of the things you may have experienced or thought about. There is obviously much more than can be said about each of the topics I will be discussing but that is for a different format.

One last thing – I don’t think everyone involved with the church, from leadership to the first time visitor, always realizes that everyone who makes up the church is broken and that we bring our own dysfunction to the gathering of the church. Another way of saying this is that the church is exclusively made up of sinners. Pure and simple – from the pastor to the janitor, from the worship leader to Sunday school teachers, from small group leaders to the parishioners sitting in the pews. The church is made up of sinners…who are hopefully being saved by grace. It is important that none of us lose this perspective because once we forget about the grace we need to sustain us we will cease extending it to those around us.

Church: The Way it’s Suppose to be

I have pastored for nearly 35 years now and over the last 25 years of ministry I have come to believe that church is meant to be the safest place in the world. It is something we have worked hard to ensure at the church I pastor because the church is meant to graciously love, to build up, encourage, and affirm the believer in their relationship with Christ so that when we go out into the world we live in we might accurately reveal Christ to those around us.

The church is meant to be that safe place we can come when we’ve made a mess of our lives, when our faith has failed, when we have lived selfishly making costly mistakes and poor choices, when we feel like we have failed God, ourselves, and those we love, when life is kicking us in the teeth, whether it is because of our own failures or the failures of others.

Church is meant to be that safe environment that nurtures our faith when we have more questions than answers. It is meant to be that safe place we can come when we’re tired, depressed, overwhelmed, confused, and have little strength. It’s the place we can come and find rest and peace from the demands of the world that is constantly evaluating us on our performance. Church is meant to be that safe place we can come when we don’t have to have it all together in a nice neat package, pretending life is grand when it’s not.

Jesus asks, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get       away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matt. 11:28-30   The Message

Church is meant to be that safe place where we see Jesus in the lives of others; where we encounter His love, acceptance, and mercy through the lives of those who would gather in his name. Church is meant to be a refuge for us as we follow Christ because quite frankly, life at times can be tragic and hard and the burdens we bear can be crushing. Church is meant to be that safe place where no one is keeping score because Christ has settled the score on the cross.

But that’s not necessarily our experience with the church. Too often church is the last place we want to go when we aren’t doing well, when life is crashing down upon us. I believe there are several reasons for this and my hope is to shed some light on some of these as I see it. Until next time…

I am starting a new blog this year entitled Howling in the Desert. I took this title from a manuscript that I started several years ago and never finished. It still sits on my desk under a stack of papers with the thought that someday I will rework the idea and finish it.  The idea of naming the blog “Howling in the Desert” comes from a passage in Matthew 3:3, where the ministry of John the Baptist is described as:

“A voice of one calling in the desert,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.’” NIV

I was preparing for a sermon on the above passage and was reading a commentary by Frederick Bruner on the book of Matthew. Frederick Bruner translates the word “calling” as “howling”. Citing Rabanus, Bruner writes people speak loudly for three reasons: when others are distant, deaf or angry – and the human race is all three.[1] I believe this to also be the condition of the church today.

I hope to cover a wide range of topics that will help people flesh out their faith in the earthiness of everyday life. I hope that this blog is not only helpful for those in our congregation but somehow finds it way to those who for whatever reason are estranged from a local body of believers.

Over the past few years, I have noticed a growing dissatisfaction amongst churchgoers.” Something I have noticed over the past few years is that there is a growing dissatisfaction amongst those who attend church. This has led to an increasing number of people leaving traditional expression of the church. The church these people are leaving is often the congregational assembly that constitutes a visible expression of the body of Christ in the local setting.  Some of these people who are dissatisfied and leave these churches then form house churches but most simply stop meeting with believers all together. A few even leave the faith.

The decision these people have made to leave the church, and in many cases to give up on the church, deeply saddens me. There are many reasons cited why people are abandoning the church. Though some of these reasons are understandable and legitimate complaints, the decision to give up on the church is a grave mistake. In the following weeks I hope to explore this thorny and often emotionally charged issue from a biblical perspective. I hope to bring to those who have been hurt by the church a sense of being pastored and cared for. I hope to bring to those who are disappointed and disillusioned with the church a sense of renewed vision and purpose. I am deeply troubled and saddened by those who have become isolated in their faith, and my prayer is that God would draw his people into the sacramental communion with Himself and His people.