The Church

...so, I think the Church is the only place on the planet where anything of any real (read eternal) value can take place; we say schools can educate (but our conception of education doesn't include changing hearts, minds, and lives), governments can create laws (but laws don't create law-abiders, merely set the limits we use to mete out consequences), armies can conquer (but the most powerful armed force on the planet can't keep my heart safe from evil). In my estimation, the one place that has been granted any true authority in this world to redeem, heal, comfort, soothe, encourage, teach (in the true sense of the word)*, is the body of Christ - the Spirit of God living and breathing in those who let Him. (So I guess that makes me an Arminian?)

I know that in today's climate it is trendy to discuss the failures of the Church, of course there are failures; the same people who comprise our failing schools, governments, militaries, are the makeup of the Church. How about the success!!! People love to talk about the minister who sleeps around, what about the sexual deviant who is free of his past and can love his wife and child in purity; people get giddy over Churches "extorting" their congregations while the pastor drives a BMW, what about the family caught up in greedy-western-materialism that gives half a years income to someone they barely know because "God told them to"; people drool uncontrolably when the Church abuses authority (aka has the audacity to teach submission as a prerequisite for Christ-likeness), what about the spiteful, angry, rebellious man who is transformed into a servant?

I am the first to say that Christians need to change, that we aren't perfect, that the Church is full of sinners... because that is the whole point; the whole world is full of sinners, the Church is the one place that is full of sinners in the process of perfection (granting it won't be completed till Kingdom Come).

The Church is the only place that manifests the only real treasure available; the divine spark, the pearl of great price, the transcendent Spirit of God made immanent, the Love and Grace of the Divine Reality offered to those who recieve it joyously yet undeservingly, the Gospel. Can we be more pure, more honest, more meek? Of course! Does this justify indignation? Of course not! To point to sinners in the Church and use this as an excuse to remain judgmental, stingy, greedy, rebellious, is simply silly and hardly a help to anyone including ourselves.



*Educator's define learning as aquired knowledge evidenced by a change in behavior.