There is Hope in a Messed Up Church

I felt uncomfortable writing that headline, and I feel a bit uncomfortable writing this blog post. But I’ve come this far, so I’m finishing it.

I work in the church industry. That sentence by itself is a bit uncomfortable, because the church was never intended to be an industry. “Worship music” makes about 40 million dollars each year just from the churches who pay to sing worship songs in their congregation. That doesn’t even take into account album sales and live concerts.

And one of the leading causes of church splits is over preferences…someone thinks the church should sing country songs while someone else thinks they should sing rock songs. Then we get into a squabble over the musical accompaniment to songs like “Beloved, Let Us Love One Another”.

There have been more words written about the Bible than are actually in the Bible. And many of those words don’t even agree with what the Bible says.

I don’t believe this is what Jesus had in mind when he built his church. It’s safe to say the original purpose of the church has become a bit skewed.

And we can grow cynical about the church. We can reject the church because of this perversion. Or we can choose to see the beauty in this mess.

Think about it: If the church has a real enemy that seeks to destroy it by perverting it…which the Bible says it does…isn’t this exactly what it would look like? In a sense, the fact that the church is getting messed up like this is a proof that its teachings are true. That in itself isn’t exactly redemptive.

But here’s the truth: The church is still advancing. Christ is still reaching hearts. People are still coming to Jesus. Even through this perverted thing called the church.

Christ loves to use foolishness to confound the wise. And I don’t quite understand how God could change people’s hearts through the broken vessel called the church…but he does.

And that’s the hope in this messed up thing we call the church. I for one, am glad to be part of it. Sure, I’d love to bring it more into alignment with what Jesus had in mind. But I’m in for the long haul, no matter what.

[Blog photo from Mopho.to]