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.