The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Meeting Together

10.15.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 7)

Many people, in and out of the church, have the mistaken idea that the church is made up of perfect people. The church is not perfect, but striving for perfection. The church is not a country club for perfect people. The church is a MASH unit on the front lines of life. The church is a work in process -- in transition. Sometimes church members make mistakes, they fail, they stumble and fall. And sometimes the church is the army that shoots its wounded. Some church members are baby Christians and have not yet grown up in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some church members are spiritual toddlers, or teens, or young adults. Church members should be striving to become mature Christians -- become all that God wants them to be and will enable them to be.

However, in spite of her blemishes and warts, the church is the last best hope of the world. God left the church here to carry out His purpose -- to reconcile people back to God and reconcile people back to each other.

Yes, there are hypocrites in the church. But, I would rather go to church with them, then go to hell with them. At least in church they come under the influence of Christian songs, Christian prayers, Christian Scriptures, and the godly influence of Christian people. How come people criticize and condemn the church for her faults and failures and hypocrisy, but never criticize secular institutions. We bank with hypocrites. We shop with hypocrites. We belong to civic clubs with hypocrites. We play with hypocrites. Politics is full of hypocrites.

You know that there are genuine Christians in the church, because there are counterfeit Christians. People counterfeit money, because genuine money exists. It is not our place to separate the wheat and the chaff. God will take care of that at the judgment.

We need to be church every Lord's Day to meet with Christ at His Table, to fellowship with the people of God, to study God's Word, to speak with God in prayer, and to worship the Almighty God in all of His holiness. God will honor those who worship in spirit and in truth.
-- Bob Kastens

I feel for Mr. Henry. I have been where he is and, to some extent, find myself in and out of that same sympathy even today. But as someone once observed, "Everything rises and falls on leadership" (especially in a church!). Much of the frustration, dissatisfaction, and unease felt by many in their churches comes from a failure of pastors and ministers to fulfill their God-given duty to truly feed and nurture the flock under them. To many it has become a job rather than an actual ministry -- for some, simply a job promoting their little personal kingdom; for others, a job, period, where it is a matter of just earning a living. Additionally, there is a huge failure of believing members to recognize and utilize their God-given gifts for ministering one to another. Church has become more a "spectator" sport where the redeemed in the pew expect it all to be done by the church "staff." No wonder that there is such widespread dissatisfaction among membership and such burn-out among ministerial staff.
-- Jeff Vowell
Memphis, Tennessee

The Church as believer, body and bride is a deep mystery beyond my grasp, and also the source of great pain. I'm only one of many who, in searching for a deeper life in Christ and with His people, have found instead abuse and heartbreak.

I stopped going to church several years ago due to the cult-like atmosphere of my small group at the church I was attending. I was drawn in by their zeal for God, and family-like caring and closeness, and didn't see at first the abuses woven in, such as: condemnation, manipulation, coached peer pressure, intimidation through their spiritual authority. But my time in the crosshairs eventually came, and it finally woke me up, though it took many months to break the spell enough to leave.

It's been a long slog since then, but eventually I'll "go back to church" because I still believe we His body will someday be what He has called us to be, and I want to help us get there: full of Jesus' love, power, wisdom, humility, courage and mercy.

Thanks, Mr. Henry, for asking.
-- Tim Wade
Belpre, Ohio

"Is a church its people, or is it the body of Christ, or both? When you feel like certain people -- perhaps key people -- have let you down, what do you do?"

You remember that the Church is not a resort for saints, it is a hospital for sinners. Of COURSE people let us down, including -- perhaps especially -- those who are leaders in religious organizations. They are Fallen creatures, they fail. The Church teaches us to accept this. It is only the secularists who believe in the perfectibility of mankind who have reason to be "shocked" when the people they've placed on pedestals prove to have feet of clay. Except that they almost never are. They make excuses for *those* people. They're only "shocked" (and secretly delighted) when religious leaders fail.

"In the best Utopia, I must be prepared for the moral fall of any man in any position at any moment; especially for my fall from my position at this moment." -- G.K. Chesterton, ORTHODOXY
-- Joseph DeMartino
West Palm Beach, Florida

I can understand Mr. Henry's frustration with human fallibility in churches. And yet, that's the whole point of going to church. Sick people go to hospitals because they need physical healing; if doctors threw their hands up every time a patient wasn't helped, then what would be the point of the hospital? Christians should support each other because of our fallibility, not in spite of it. Even the best congregation can't prevent every hardship, or do the right thing in all circumstances. What we need are people like Mr. Henry, who recognize this shortcoming, to choose action over retreat. If you see a failure, make a step towards correcting it. If you've been let down, do something to lift someone else up. The church is more than just the sum of its mortal parts. We should work through our communal faults, rather than isolating ourselves from them.

If the people who care enough to notice choose to disengage, all that's assured is more disappointment. I hope Mr. Henry finds a way to see his situation as an opportunity to make a difference, not a burden to seek refuge from. After all, a "perfect" church wouldn't let him -- or me -- in, would they?
-- Jeff Laird
Cleveland, Ohio

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