I run into a lot of sad people. When I talk to them, I find out that they feel bad about themselves. Their life, their thoughts, they're just not good enough. As I talk further with them, much of their poor self-esteem can be traced back to their experience of church growing up.
It is time that the church stop contributing to this. I don't mean our church, Woods Chapel, but the church that so many of us grew up in that told everyone how bad they were. It just doesn't seem like Jesus' way to me.
There are so many negative unhappy people in the world. The church has to be a place where people are blessed and graced. Where they are healed instead of hurt. Where their thinking begins to sound like the beatitudes instead of some guilt laden tirade that they picked up in church at the age of 15.
What are you doing to spread God's love? God created and said, "it is good." It is good. It is good. It is all good. That is the truth. God loves us. It doesn't get any better than that.
It is a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
1 comment:
I've been thinking today about what it would be like if the church had a forum for people to come complain about the church. I'm sure there are many people in the church that don't need a forum in order to complain, but those of us in the church are without excuse when we complain because we are the church and therefore indict ourselves with our own complaints.
But would people outside the church show up? Would we truly listen to their complaints? Would we openly confess our awareness of the church's repeated failures to live up to Jesus' charge? Finally, would they be more willing to hear us once they have been heard? What would we say?
I would say "you're right". We are guilty of all the things you've mentioned. We could use your help to become better. See, we're missing an important ingredient to our solvency as a church. That is you.
Maybe just a hypothetical, but I wonder how our church can really reach the folks who have written off the church, probably for good reason. Someone let me know if this problem strikes a chord with you, too.
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