Bravo

This thought-provoking but gentle-spirited post pretty much touches on where I'm at these days with the church.

This particular part resonated deeply:

God's people are supposed to be for the weak and broken yet many churches are run like goal driven corporations where only successes are celebrated and so you end up hiding your pain and failures and wonder after awhile "why bother."

Jesus promises us rest and we desperately need the rest because we are running ourselves ragged trying to survive in the new global economy. But when we go to church we are given another to do list as demanding and as tyrannical as the one in the office if not more so.

It's worth checking out if you have a minute. It sort of touches upon where I've been coming from, and why I consider myself among the unchurched but faithful. I agree with the author in that there is no such thing as a perfect church this side of Heaven itself. But having been so burned before, and seeing the big expensive business enterprises that most have become, I'm becoming even more reluctant as the years pass to join anywhere. The more of this big-business type of churches I encounter, the more depressed and alone in my faith I feel.

My God doesn't need a wide-screen projection screen, tanks on the pulpit, enterprise-class church directory software or any number of crazed ideas that I've seen and heard about recently. He chose people, flawed and weak to get his message across. I don't think that was an accident, or because no one had invented PowerPoint or Podcasting yet.

Until I find a place where the majority of people are so like-minded, I'm content to journey in the company of a few faithful friends and family who also believe. Right now, they are my church, and I thank God for them.

Hat tip: Journal of Ruth