My friend is a missionary in a third world country. She grew up in the church in small town America, and while she is beloved by many in her hometown, she never really seemed to me to fit there. She is about as qualified as anyone to open this can of worms. I'll let her speak for herself, then stir the can a bit myself:
I grew up in the church. My parents and their parents were Christians. The small mostly Christian town that I grew up in was, and sometimes still is, fairly conservative. I have learned to think outside of my own world, and box. While I've attended church my whole life, I am serious when I say I did not learn about Christ's love and how deep it is for us in church, but rather through my family and through Emmaus, a parachurch organization. While I've learned much about God and his teachings in church over the years I've mainly come to know God in a real way outside of church, with friends family, on my own, and in my educational studies. I have experienced the love of God and seen his disciples in the local church, however, that is not something I find regularly in most organized churches. And like many who have worked in the church closely, I've been extremely hurt by the local church. While there are some true, whole hearted followers of Jesus in most churches, what I've observed after being in, attending, and visiting NUMEROUS churches, not to mention making ministry my full-time job and having worked in churches in the past, I've come to the conclusion that most churches and their current structures are broken!!!!! Their focus is on themselves: bigger better buildings, more services and programs that are not really accomplishing anything. In the 21st century, in a postmodern world, the current model is NOT functioning. Churches are filled with shallow "Christians" who don't really know God nor want to know him more. We are wasting resources and giving Christians a bad name worldwide with our broken models and broken Christians. I'm not saying God can't and doesn't use churches for good even in their current condition, but that in general they are counterproductive and causing problems and disbelief among non-believers as well as reproducing shallow Christians.
After talking to various friends of mine whom are not Christians, I realized that the church the way it is stands today is not functioning. Non-believers think that church is boring, counterproductive, and doesn't offer them anything that will make a difference in their lives. (Correct me if I'm wrong). And from what I've seen in most churches, I'd have to agree! There is good news. I'm excited that many Christians, especially in my generation, are starting to "get it." Get the point of living, learning, growing, seeking, and transforming our communities in community! Going against the current model is cross-cultural and not common, but maybe it could become the norm? A sad reality is that right now for many of us there is no church or group of Christians with which we can feel at home, discuss the Bible, love one another without being overly judgmental, and live a new kind of Christian life. So many of us find ourselves discouraged and disillusioned with the typical way of doing church, and for good reason. I know many who don't even attend anywhere regularly even though they are strong Christians. But, when you live in community with others, do away with the programs and money spent on ourselves, when you focus on the Bible and learning from one another, life is different. God becomes alive and so do our lives! And there is power in a community of believers and seekers.
From what I've studies read, and seen in my life, I have decided that we cannot wait any longer! The pastors and people are drowning in mediocre Christianity and poor models. It doesn't matter in what country, I'm speaking on a global scale. At this time I'm not going to go into our ideas or models at this time, but I will soon.
People are hungry, hungry for truth, hungry for change! We must ask ourselves "Are our lives valuable? Is what we are doing working? Do we experience the real love of Christ in church? And are we producing transformed people and leaders? Are we really making a difference on a big scale in our neighborhoods, jobs, and communities? Are we reaching the poor?" If not shouldn't we take a hard look at what we are doing and change?
We need new kinds of churches, new kinds of Christians. I think if Christ came today he be saddened by what he saw in the Church. It saddens me and it saddens many. So, what are we going to do? God has slowly been placing the possibility on our hearts of possibly starting a new kind of church one day and to teach pastors a new kind of model. We want that to be part of our job description because it is a burden we carry.
I plan to make my next post a hearty "Amen" to much of what she's said here. But let me close by saying that it is a sad day when believers raised in the church, who know the intrinsic value of its propositions and the dire necessity by which it must succeed, are driven from the church in droves, while the ones who stick it out are tempted to leave at every turn, as if they know they have hunkered down in a sinking ship. I never expected that attending a Christian college would be unsafe for my faith as I knew it. I have never wanted to leave the church so badly in my life that I almost lost faith permanently. It turns out that my college experience was a catalyst for many things I needed to address. I began saying that I wanted to get to the kind of "simple faith that lies on the other side of complexity," and my professors and peers--some thoughtful and insightful, some unwitting--helped me to begin that process. I thought it pointless in high school to cloister myself in a Christian college, reasoning that the "salt of the earth" ought to spread out from its saltshaker. What I did not know is that there are few things as pernicious as the dark underbelly of human desire for relationship when it crawls into the kind of hopeful, unsuspicious community that strives to collectively imitate Christ.
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