A significantly modified version of this post appeared at the Boundless Blog. You can find that here. (I like them both.) I was sitting in the church service when I heard the preacher say something that made me cringe: “If you can’t remember the day you gave your heart to Jesus, then you probably never were saved in the first place.”
When you look around at Christians, it’s so easy to judge. Believers get it wrong all the time – they get behind the wrong causes; they do a poor job living the truth; and they frequently serve Jesus in selfish ways. You wonder why Jesus didn’t just stay here and do the work of loving the world Himself. Using all of these messed up believers seems so inefficient.
It wasn’t that long ago that my wife and I were visiting churches after having moved to a new city. Before moving, we were part of a church where almost everyone knew us, and everything about the Sunday services felt familiar. So it was odd to suddenly be strangers in a meeting that used to feel like home.
My wife and I recently moved to another state, and we’re on the hunt for a new church community. It’s an odd experience — before we moved here, we had been in the same church since we got engaged. Now we’re going from being well-known to being thankful when people talk to us.
“Oh Lord, I’m having a hot flash again,” said my Aunt Kathy Jo, wiping sweat from her cheek while setting up for Thanksgiving dinner. “Somebody turn on the air conditioner – I can’t take it.” I chuckled at her honesty and then complimented her outfit. It was a departure from the more formal Thanksgiving attire of years past. With her black hat, shimmering with rhinestones, tight black pants, and white, denim jacket, she looked less like Martha Stewart and more like Salt n’ Pepa.
About three weeks ago, my wife and I were driving down the road, and I was talking about some of my concerns with the hypocrisy that is all-too-easy to find in the church. As that part of our conversation wound down, my wife said, “Joshua, look, I know you’ve got a lot of valid points, but you really just need to guard against becoming cynical.”
As I mentioned in my previous article, “I Kissed Churchianity Goodbye,” there came a point in my life where I walked away from the traditional church setting, and as far as I was concerned at the time, it was for good. I had legitimate frustrations with Churchianity, and although I was initially questioning things in a healthy way, it wasn’t long before my questions turned into accusations, and my tone became quite haughty – even mean-spirited.
Being raised by churchgoing parents, by the time I had finished law school, I had attended a fairly wide variety of churches. I had been a part of everything from the large, conservative, Southern Baptist church in my hometown to a lively, charismatic church, which my neighbors viewed with suspicion, assuming it was somehow affiliated with the Jehovah’s Witnesses (it wasn’t).
Joshua Rogers 