Too Much Time on Our Hands

Recently I have seen some serious ugliness from the church. (Not from HeartLand, my home church, but other congregations.) I don’t know how else to say it. I won’t go into details because of the circumstances, but I will simply say that I have seen true people of God vilified, gossiped about, and ostracized due to what can only be called politics…the politics of personal vendettas and the politics of fear that keeps leadership from standing up for what is right. It has left me shaken and disillusioned.

If I could say that this is a rare occurrence in an overall healthy church I would simply grieve, pray, and move on. But it is not. In fact, this kind of ugliness has become indicative of the church today. Churches split, denominations argue, and somehow the ones who are serious about the Word of God and obedience to it are the ones who take the arrows.

So why do we see this kind of ugliness in the church? The answer is simple and straightforward…we have nothing better to do. Oh, we have our programs, church growth seminars, and services, but we lack mission. We argue about music styles, services, budgets and by-laws because we have no focus or awareness beyond them. And we honestly think if we tweak here or restructure there that the world will come running and fall at our altar.

Quite honestly, the world doesn’t care what the church has to say. They have heard way too many words and seen far too little action. They don’t believe the church cares about them, and if we had the courage to be honest with ourselves we would have to agree.

There is a world dying around us both spiritually and physically, and the typical church does little or nothing about it. We continue with our services and programs and offer a brief and passing prayer for “the lost and the needy” because we have more important things with which to deal today.

I want to find a way to turn this blog entry into something positive, but I am struggling to do so. I am angry. I am disillusioned. I am ashamed. But, as a result, I want more than anything to bring about change.

Maybe that is the positive of this blog. Maybe that is the answer. Maybe if enough believers get angry, disillusioned and ashamed of this institution called the church it will drive them to action. And that action will not be to attack other believers and split churches, but will be a ground-swell movement that leads them to create a new church from the foundation up. A church that cares about the world that is spiritually dead and physically dying. A church that has a mission instead of programs. A church that doesn’t have the time to fight one another.

The world is waiting, what will we do?