During the last few weeks and months I've had some challenging conversations with many friends and family in the context of planting a church in downtown Rochester, NH. Some feel alienated by the Church, some are confused, some are seeking and hopeful, and some are just downright hurt. My generation is by and large skeptical of the Church at best and repulsed by it at worst. I have friends who grew up in the Church and have walked away because of the things they've encountered. Their view of Jesus does not square with what they see and so they find it easier and less painful to simply part ways with the institutional church. To be honest, I can't entirely blame them.
I will admit that it is much, much easier to point fingers and find faults rather than committing to a community despite the flaws. However, the sentiment many people feel with regard to the Church has validity and can't be ignored. Many have seen a dogmatic, rigid, moralistic, legalistic church that values being right over being gracious. They have been beaten over the head with Scripture to prove a point instead of being comforted and challenged by it. They have been told that to be a Christian means you have to leave your science behind. They have been told that they must subscribe to certain political viewpoints or they aren't truly Christians. They've been made to feel that they're not "good enough." They have been confronted with a purely black and white paradigm that leaves no room for nuance, interpretation, or grace.
Now, let me be clear. I am in no way advocating that we cease striving to ascertain Truth or that there is nothing that we can be certain about. Quite the opposite. I believe that we cannot be truly humble or gracious unless we are secure in Christ. The answer, of course, does not lie in an "anything goes, believe what you want" approach. However, sometimes security means trusting Christ and being comfortable saying that we don't have everything figured out. It is easy to lose sight of the very basic truths of the Gospel while fighting to assert our particular interpretation of Scripture and this unnecessarily alienates the very people who need to see Christ the most.
None of us have our acts together. It is damaging to people when we act like we do. The very foundation of the Gospel is that every one of us is desperately sinful but that we are infinitely loved so that God put on flesh and died for us to make us one with Him again. Church becomes a moralistic and legalistic place when we give lip service to this doctrine while living as if we've got everything figured out. Church becomes rigid and harsh when we act like we don't, even now, desperately need the grace of Jesus. It becomes like this when grace is merely part of our theology and doesn't invade our hearts so that everything we do and say is marked by it. To truly meet needs in the name of Jesus, the Gospel of grace must so permeate our hearts that we have the humility to acknowledge that we do not have all the answers and we are on a messy and difficult journey together. But in this, we find our hope and peace through Jesus Christ because He has inaugurated His kingdom on this Earth because of His sacrifice. He invites us to join with Him to advance it not through conquest and force but through love and humble service.
To my alienated, hurt, seeking, confused friends and family:
The church is a broken and messy place. None of us have our acts together. If we say we do, we're lying or we really just don't understand what Jesus taught. Yes, we're hypocrites a lot of the time. Please be patient with us. To be honest, our rigidity and legalism often comes from fear. It may not make sense to some of you, but many of us feel that we are under attack and we have to fight to assert ourselves. A lot of us feel that, as Christians, our voices are being silenced in the public square and that we have to come across as strong and sure of ourselves to survive. We are often wounded, too. This carries over into matters of doctrine and church function. Most of us though, underneath all of the mess and junk, genuinely long to be like Jesus and show His love in tangible ways. We long to see people changed by the love of Jesus. We long to meet physical, spiritual, and emotional needs (and not just so you'll come to our services) and reach the marginalized, forgotten, and broken. And we need grace and patience too.
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