One For Truth

I Love the Church

I admit that in the span of the posts I've put on this blog since starting back in July, there's been a lot of bellyaching on my part about the church. Churchianity, Christianese, stupid church behavior, lack of grace towards gays, all of these have been targets of mine.

Let me say that none of these posts should be construed as the slightest murmurs of a pending out-churching on my part. Some get so fed up the walk out the doors of the church, vowing never to return. Some abandon their faith altogether. This is so not where I am at, and I want and need to make that clear. The most precious human beings I know are in the church. There's real love in the church, and it is much, much bigger than stupid church behavior. The church is the bride of Jesus, the one who I have committed to follow. If I criticize it, it's to make it better. I'm a reformer, not a destroyer.

So, my church installed a new pastor tonight. This whole day has been a reminder to me of all the things that are so great about church: the sense of community, of shared mission, of tender concern for one another, of appreciation for hard work, and of the sense of being a fragile vessel for the spirit of God. All those were present today, and they made the occasional Christianese and stupid church behavior (and there was some) simply not worth recounting.

The gates of Hell continue to pound on Jesus' church, and still it soldiers on. Neither moth, rust, nor stupid church baloney can destroy what Jesus has been building for the last two thousand years. Tonight, I felt really touched to be a small part of it.

posted by Zeke @ 8:51 PM