{"id":6707,"date":"2010-02-24T00:19:39","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T05:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/"},"modified":"2010-02-24T00:19:39","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T05:19:39","slug":"criticizing-church-defending-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Criticizing Church, Defending Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Everywhere I go and nearly everyone I read has a theme, whether central or peripheral, and I think the theme is getting too much attention and it\u2019s getting too much play and it\u2019s setting us up for failure.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Here\u2019s the theme: the Church is so messed up<\/b>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Instances: preaching is not that good today; theology is so shallow today; Christian morals are so loose today; parents are not that good today; we\u2019ve got too much individualism today; kids don\u2019t respond as they used to; the church is spending too much money today; Christians aren\u2019t liked in culture \u2026.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The suggestion: Let\u2019s start all over again<\/b>. This time we\u2019ll get it right. Let\u2019s get ourselves a group of really zealous followers of Jesus and let\u2019s think about kingdom and forget the choir robes and denominations and pastors and hierarchy and church budgets. Finally, we\u2019ll get it right. We\u2019ll just follow Jesus and we\u2019ll forget the church. We\u2019ll do kingdom work and forget the church.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Go ahead. Join the crowd. In a few years you\u2019ll come back to something you either face now, in a more rational manner, or later in a more chastened manner, that is if you\u2019ve got any passion left. Here\u2019s my theory:<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
I want to say I believe in an Augustinian ecclesiology<\/b>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When I say this, I am not talking about what Augustine believed about Rome and the State. No, I\u2019m taking the old-fashioned Augustinian anthropology, where he had a rather dismal but not altogether unrealistic theory of human nature. Fallen and broken, what I call \u201ccracked Eikons\u201d in my book Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>. I\u2019m suggesting we need to apply the Augustinian anthropology to create an Augustinian ecclesiology. (This, by the way, is nothing new.)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In other words, if you want perfection, don\u2019t look to the church. If you want the ideal, don\u2019t look to the church. If you want a perfect fellowship, don\u2019t look to the church. If you want the utopian society, don\u2019t look to the church.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But if you want a gaggle of cracked Eikons, sinners and mistake-makers and sometimes goofed up and sometimes incredibly loving and joyous and devoted, then look to the church. You\u2019ll find that kind of group, but not the perfect group.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What ever makes us think the church has to be either perfect or we\u2019ll stay home and do our own thing? I\u2019ve been thinking about this this year, and the thought keeps coming into my head along these lines:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
God\u2019s People, whom he never disowned, in the Old Testament did some great things and some mighty stupid things; they had some great leaders and some disgusting ones; they had some high moments and they had some low moments.\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
God\u2019s people, whom he never disowns, in the New Testament, move from that wonderful church plant of fellowship in Acts 2 and 4 to some liars and deceivers and some great leaders who get into arguments with one another and sometimes abandon one another and get themselves in awful messes. And Paul tells us about church problems that would make us \u2026<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Admit that an Augustinian ecclesiology is perhaps what we need because it\u2019s what we\u2019ve got.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Perhaps a cracked Fellowship of cracked Eikons is the point of what the church is!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Perhaps that\u2019s why the churches have always put the Eucharist table in the middle. We come to the Table to partake in God\u2019s forgiving grace because we\u2019re cracked Eikons. When cracked Eikons form a fellowship, you get a cracked Fellowship. In the cracks God works his grace.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everywhere I go and nearly everyone I read has a theme, whether central or peripheral, and I think the theme is getting too much attention and it\u2019s getting too much play and it\u2019s setting us up for failure. Here\u2019s the theme: the Church is so messed up. Instances: preaching is not that good today; theology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[484],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church"],"yoast_head":"\nCriticizing Church, Defending Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Everywhere I go and nearly everyone I read has a theme, whether central or peripheral, and I think the theme is getting too much attention and it's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Criticizing Church, Defending Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Everywhere I go and nearly everyone I read has a theme, whether central or peripheral, and I think the theme is getting too much attention and it's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-24T05:19:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jesuscreed-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001OMIBOK\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/\",\"name\":\"Criticizing Church, Defending Church\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-24T05:19:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-02-24T05:19:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Everywhere I go and nearly everyone I read has a theme, whether central or peripheral, and I think the theme is getting too much attention and it's\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/24\/criticizing-church-defending-church\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Criticizing Church, Defending Church\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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