Fixing The Church

          To me the most frustrating part of dealing with church shortcomings is that I’m part of the problem.  If we Christians want to have a productive conversation about what’s wrong with the church today then we have to consider our own sin more seriously.  I find that the biggest obstacle that taints my corporate worship experience is always my own sin-stricken grace-hoarding heart, and I bet you can relate.

          I know we don’t want to talk about our own sin when we’re dogging the church.  “Hey buddy, this about how the church is messed up, not me” right?  Confessing sin when targeting the church could result in shooting yourself in the foot, it’s not the target you want in your crosshairs when you’re upset.  We have a hard time seeing our own sinful behavior as being a contributor to church woes… it hits too close to home… it’s too real.

          If you’re like me you have the uncanny ability to spot a speck in your brother’s eye from a mile away despite the fact that you have a log in your own.  Writing a blog about how people are judgmental, religious or ritualistic… that’s a piece of cake, no challenge whatsoever.  Sniffing out an institution I deem to be fraudulent and smothering it with blanket statements is like taking candy from a baby.  Now confessing that I’ve been an instigator over my years in the church resulting in my own bitterness, that’s a tougher pill to swallow, it’s skin off my back.

          Now are there some churches that are harmful, abusive, teach false doctrines, have unbiblical leadership and not centered on the gospel?  Are there churches that are really good at entertaining you and weaseling money out of your wallets but really have no concern for the gospel of Jesus or theological depth at all?  Absolutely there are, and you should definitely move along if you’re in one of those scenarios.  I fully agree that there can come a time to give up on A church.  I also believe there is a difference in giving up on A church and giving up on THE church.  Discerning on when to give up on A church is a blog for another time, one I think needs written.

          However, throwing the entire idea of organized church out the window has just never sat right with me.  It’s been tempting at times for sure but for all of the wrong reasons.  Over the years all of the vague church complaints have become white noise to me only further fueling the issues rather than offering any actual solutions.  The story is always the same, a bunch of people in church sinned against a bunch of people in church, so church stinks… end of story.

          Trust me, I’ve seen some pretty messed up stuff go down in “church” so I’m never surprised by the outcry.  Honestly I connect with a lot of it.  However, all of the generalizations just don’t seem to nail down or help what’s going on here, it’s only ever one side of the story, it’s the lazy way out.  On a good day (when our glasses are half full) we could make an equal amount of positive blanket claims to swing the pendulum in the other direction (but those blog posts wouldn’t get much air time).  I don’t want to pretend like everything’s ok but I also don’t want to pretend like everything’s NOT ok.  Enough with the pretending…  Even if I’m in a phenomenally healthy church environment I’m still going to encounter church conflict because we all sin.  What are we to do?

          When I’m really wanting to be honest with myself, when I want to be productive towards actually helping people who have been hurt by the church, I need to openly admit that I contribute to what makes church unappealing, again I’m sinful.  Seriously, I could tell stories for days about the atrocities committed by “believers” all while conveniently neglecting to follow those stories up with my equally sinful responses (the way I gossiped, slandered and bad mouthed them, or reacted foolishly).  I wish I could claim my anger was always righteous but it’s usually just an outpouring of pride just like a high horse antichurch blog rant, I am what I dislike.  To put it in the always clear words of Dr. Paul Tripp, “Sinners tend to respond sinfully to being sinned against.”

          In those grace driven moments when I actually behave like a Christian should, I can also contribute to what makes church great - I can repent.  If you want to take action in the midst of a chaotic church environment or “fix” what’s wrong with church then you must start with repentance.  Repentance (metanoia) literally translated from the greek means to have a second thought about things and change your mind.  If you’re going to throw the church under the bus start with yourself, admit you’re part of the problem.  The church will be sinful until Jesus comes back so the church must display repentance until that time.  Repentance is the Christian lifestyle, a posture we strive for and a gift of God’s grace.  Without repentance we should all give up on the church.  Thankfully Christ never washed his hands of us, he extended grace and offered the sacrifice that gives us reason to do the same. Grace always wins.

“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”

(2 Timothy 2:22-26)

Lord please grant us repentance,

Cody Parman