One Degree to Another
The internet is full of writings that fall into what could be best characterized as the “reasons why the church sucks” genre. This genre’s offerings are not limited to one subset of the Christian family. They run the full gamut. One article may decry the church as backwards on gender roles while the next one will argue that the entire church is in the midst of a doctrinal downgrade. One pastor will write an article saying that the church is not organized enough and does not have a plan for engaging people with the Gospel and another complains that the church is too organized and not reliant enough upon the Spirit. In the last week, I have read that the church explains away the book of Acts, is unorganized, is unfriendly, has poor preaching, is not theological enough, does too much to protect people in power, is too theological, does not emphasize church planting enough, does too little to protect children, cares too much about its ministers’ professional training, cares too little about social justice, and emphasizes church planting too much. This list could be never ending. While they may differ in emphasis, they all share one thing in common, the church sucks and churches suck; except for my church. Everyone needs to be like my church.
There are a couple of issues at play here. First, it is difficult to talk about “the church” in America. Some research suggests that there are over 350,000 Christian congregations in the United States. It’s impossible to say almost anything that is generally true about all of these congregations. The Southern Baptist Convention is a great example of this. There are 45,000 churches and great variety exists in them. Making broad stroke statements about the church is foolish when you consider this variety.
Another issue is that no one should be shocked when there are blindspots, sin, and errors in “the church” and churches. The church is made up of redeemed people, but those redeemed people still live in bodies of flesh, dwell in a world that has been stained by sin, and experience temptations from the devil. Our theology is never going to be perfect and our practice is never going to be perfect. This does not mean that we become lazy about these things, but it does cry out for us to be realistic.
While the church is made up of sinners, it is made up of redeemed sinners. Jesus has given his life for the church and is in the process of saving people and transforming them into his image. There are always going to be reasons to rejoice about what is going on in the church. There are people growing in their love for God and their love for their neighbor. People are leaving their home and going to the nations for the sake of the Gospel. Churches are leading the way in feeding their neighbors and are on the front lines of the battle against human trafficking. There has been a renewed emphasis on hospitality and also biblical preaching. The reasons to be encouraged are countless.
The church belongs to the Lord. God the Father gave his perfect Son who willingly laid down his life and the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the church. He is at work in the church, and when we constantly complain about the state of the church, we call into question what he is doing in the lives of his people.
It’s easy to find reasons to bemoan the state of the church. It’s not hard or original to contribute to the “reasons the church sucks” genre. My appeal is to take the time to see where there are evidences of grace in the church. Do we have areas where we need to grow? Absolutely, but painstakingly look for reasons to celebrate what is happening in the church. Instead of contributing one more article on why the church is failing, why not highlight where something is going great to encourage more of it?
For Further Reading: Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung
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