I love the church. Since I was a teenager I have never waned in commitment to the church or hope for its future.
Believe me, I also know the dark side of the church. I know its history. I know its flaws – up close and personal. I am one of its flaws.
The stories of abandoning the church are many. Individual Christians abandon one church for another out of frustration. Churches abandon their denominations over differences of theology and ethics. Some of these differences are serious, and, as a result, many people abandon the church altogether. “If you can’t agree with each other, that’s evidence all of you miss the mark.”
Really? I think it’s evidence of much the Bible teaches, including the freedom God gives us to follow our own way and the grace he gives us in spite of our sins and failures.
I’m not post-Christian, post-denominational, or post-church. The church was Jesus’ idea (Matthew 16:18), and the Holy Spirit was its founder (Acts 2). That’s why I’m hanging in there. There are many Christian organizations that do great work, but at the heart of what God is still doing in the world is the local church – pockets of believers united in faith and committed to worship, community, service, and witness.
Next week (August 6-8) in Chicago, Linda and I will join others who similarly believe in the church for “Answering the Call,” a conference to renew, revitalize, and replant churches. Most of us participating in this event have been called by God to the “mainline” churches such as the United Church of Christ. But our larger passion is for the Church itself, the universal Christian church. We want to see it stronger, purer, and more unified in the 21st century.
To learn more about “Answering the Call” visit www.mainlinecall.org. If you can’t attend, please pray for us.
Whether you attend or not, and whether you feel as passionate as I do about the mainline churches, my deeper prayer is that you will grow in love for the church. It is, after all, the Bride of Christ.