The Church Lied to Me

The older I get, the more of a reflective person I become.  I became a pastor thirty years ago and the world that my Bible college and seminary trained me for no longer exists.  The thriving churches I served in no longer grow as easily today for many reasons.  There is a whole generation of families that have no church background whatsoever and a whole evolving American church whose mentality has shifted from "Jesus and the church" to "Jesus and the church really does not matter that much to my personal faith."

The biggest change is not only church people attending allot less than they used to but there are so many more people outside the domain of the church that have been hurt and wounded by the church than the number of people who actually attend any given location a church meets at.  Ministry has changed to counseling and listening to a multitude of people say why they used to go to church but don't anymore.

What makes matters worse is some of the cultural bad attitudes people hear from the church from bashing immigrants, gays, people of color to you fill in the slot.  Rather than the church being known for its love, it more known today for its intolerance and perceived hate towards various groups of people.  There are so many stumbling blocks that the church has unneccessarily created for itself. 

There was a church recently going through my neighborhood handing out fliers for a community event.  I thought here is a church trying to do something for the community but when I asked about which church it was, they did not want to tell me the name of the church.  Why would Christians be so hesitant to tell the name of the church if there was not negative perceptions connected to the name of that particular church or denomination?

Many young people are told that the earth is young and evolution is a lie only to go to the university and discover what the church told them was a lie.  Some bold young Christians are asking now, "What else has the church lied to me about?  We have set up a false choice for many young people to either choose their faith or science but you can't believe in both.  The whole history of the church has been God has spoken through two books.  God speaks both through nature and Scripture and to falsely pit these against each other is to lead another younger generation away from the church.

Churches need to reclaim intellectual honesty and behavior integrity where our hearts and minds are stirred by the Spirit of the living God and not our own fleshly desires and personal human constructs and agendas.  Justice issues, relational self sacrifice, and intellectual integrity and Godly behavior need to be what the world witnesses and sees.  The church can not afford to drive away the best and the brightest because of its own dysfunctional power plays, lack of security, and fear of change.  The world is yet waiting for the sons and daughters of God to act and bless and restore a world that is badly in need of repair and broken.  Will the church reflect the image of Christ or will it simply reflect the same brokenness and dividedness of the world?