Church?!..... Why bother?

That’s how Philip Yancey titled his book some 10 years ago. He grew up in the Deep South as a fundamentalist, attending a Baptist church where people talked about Grace but lived by Law, spoke of Love but showed signs of hate, where controlled environment squeezed out all sense of mystery, and spiritual intimacy. He defined the reason for his breakaway from the church as “Christianity kept me from Christ.” He’s not alone in such frustration.

At our last ministerial meeting an evangelical pastor prayed for a corporate repentance of having poison introduced into church teachings that resulted in an arrested spiritual growth of those who call themselves Christians. At our last Prayer meeting at the North Church Wednesday morning we were studying Hebrews 5 where Paul expresses his frustration with believers almost 2000 years ago who being Christians for a long time where as infants needed someone else to care for them, and were not trained to live responsibly.

Famous atheist Friedrich Nietzsche was asked why he was so negative toward Christians. He replied “I would believe in their salvation if they looked a little more like people who have been saved.” Winston Churchill once said that he related to the church like a flying buttress – he supported it from the outside. Another notable Christian leader, writer C.S.Lewis experienced church as a hindrance to his faith rather than help.

So, if the church is so horrible to many, and people are asking “Why bother?” why are many still come? There must be something there to make people return…

J.F.Powers penned these words: “This is a big old ship. She creaks, she rocks, she rolls, and at times she makes you want to throw up. But she gets where she’s going. Always has, always will, until the end of time. With or without you.”

When one begins to interact with people who abandoned this ship we call church, who because of some dislikes or upset feelings walked away from the gathering of believers one realizes that it is them who suffered, not the church, it is them who are at loss and not the church. Saint John of the Cross wrote “The virtuous soul that is alone is like a burning coal that is alone. It will grow colder rather than hotter.”

The Church is Jesus’ idea, not ours. We may mess it up on the long journey, bringing our baggage with us, throwing anchors overboard and clinging to debris as we navigate into the future, but it is moved not by our power, but by the Holy Ghost power, and it will get where it’s going. While we are on it we better tidy it up, make it secure for others, help it become the kind of place God intended.

As we are waiting for the results of our church health survey we are asking you to pray for your leaders, who will be implementing recommendations and designing the strategy to lead us forward. After all “we should remember that the church, enfeebled and defective though it be, is the only object on earth on which Christ bestows His supreme regard. He is constantly watching it with solicitude, and is strengthening it by His Holy Spirit.” (Ellen G.White, Manuscript 155, November 22, 1902)