The Church Is Full of Flawed People!

I've heard people say that they don't attend church because it's full of hypocrites. Sadly, that's true, but  here's a news flash. The church is full of sinners, flawed people who struggle with relationships, addictions, obesity, over judging, prejudice, guilt, shame, narcissism, impatience, approval-seeking, procrastination, misunderstanding, pride, lack of confidence, insecurity, fear, distrust, denial, selfishness-- oops, sorry. That was just my list of sins I was reading off.

But what those on the outside looking in don't realize, and actually they're on the outside just looking at the outside of the Church, is that a relationship with God isn't based on our performance or pedigree or goodness or number of nice things we've done for others, which tilts the scale in our favor. None of us would ever reach God that way. The world works that way, but not God, and that's sometimes hard for us to understand.

A relationship with God is based on what He's done for us through His Son Jesus. There's this pesky thing called sin we all have to deal with in this life. God and sin don't mix, but He made a way for sinful man to be right with Him through having His Son Jesus take the penalty for our sins through his sacrificial death. If we've put our trust in Christ (who's alive, btw), his rightness/righteousness allows us to connect with God.

If it had been up to us to work up this plan of redemption, we would've made it less messy, more convenient, works-based, hard-to-attain-but-easy-to-live-out rather than the opposite.

The Church, and I'm referring to those who have a relationship with God through Jesus, has its history of failures. For too long, the church gave off the appearance that only people who had it all together attended, people who didn't blatantly sin or make big mistakes like the rest of the world did. Many of us faithfully put on our masks most Sunday mornings, pretending all was right in our world. And that was what we focused on... our world... those things and people we felt most comfortable around. The messy world outside was far away. If they wanted to know Christ, they had to come to us. Pass the offering plate, and let someone else evangelize.

But then we didn't know how to talk to the divorcee who was broken and desperately needing support and love. We just smiled and kept things on the surface where the difficult parts of life could easily be ignored and passed by. We didn't know how to deal with people who struggled with addictions or those who faced losing their homes after they lost their jobs. And what about the gay community? Too many in the Church hope that issue stays in some other town so we don't have to deal with it. But it's here, and God loves and values them just as much as He does us.

What many of us sort of forgot along the way of playing church, is that the Church is exactly where God wants all of these struggling people. And since too many of us haven't been faithful enough to go to them, He's pulling the blinders off of his precious children for us to see that all of these struggles are already in the Church. They were simply hiding behind masks of expectations and pride. Lord, help us.

We are all flawed. 

We are all in desperate need for redemption. The only difference is that some of us flawed folks recognize that our only hope is accepting God's grace through Jesus Christ.

That, my friend, is the true Church, warts and all.