Is Church really the problem?

I spent a large chunk of last week preparing to preach on Jeremiah 2 where God outlines his case for divorcing an adulterous and idolatrous Israel.  It is a tragic tale of lost love, ungratefulness, stupid exchanges, searching for love and meaning every where but with God, disgrace, discipline and denial of sinfulness.  As well as forcing me to look at my own heart as I prepared and preached it got me thinking about all those that, over 15 years of ministry, I've seen begin running the race well before backsliding and abandoning the faith.  It also got me thinking about a growing number of young people, in their twenties and thirties, who profess faith in Christ but also disillusionment with his Church.  'I just can't find a church I like'  'We can't find a church for people like us.'  'I can't go to a church that teaches that, or that, or that, or that.'

Both those thoughts, of those who are backslidden and those who are disillusioned with church, have troubled me over the weekend.  It has led to some soul searching and self examination.  But it has also led me to the conclusion that often for the latter category of people the problem is not so much with church but with God and the Bible.

The Bible is brutally honest about the nature of church.  It is a glorious, messy, sanctifying, frustrating, beautiful, forgiveness needing, grace saturated display of the glory of Christ.  It will one day be holy and pure, without spot or blemish.  But it isn't yet.  It's impossible to read the epistles and conclude that the first century churches were sorted.  That they didn't face conflict, personal rivalries, false teaching, false application and even some hypocrisy. And yet it is through the church that God is working to reveal his kingdom.  Not because of its sorted nature but because God is at work in the glorious messiness of a church.  Church is messy, it is imperfect, but it is where God has staked his glory.

In an age where appearance matters, where via social media we massage and manipulate how people see us and our 'perfect' lives, I wonder if the rugged rough and tumble nature of church is just perceived as too imperfect by some.  Some of us need to recognise how societies norms and values are robbing us of all that God intends for us to experience in the church.  Being a committed member of a church is not easy, but then it wasn't meant to be, it was meant to be sanctifying and God glorifying.  We also need to see that whilst we can choose to only associate with those who are like us outside of church, in church God graciously for our good calls us to commit to and love those who aren't like us for our sanctification and his glory.

I wonder, however, if the bigger problem is that what those people are saying is I don't like the God of the church.  God's word conflicts with our culture and that is nothing new.  It has conflicted with every culture throughout time.  Yet our culture has worked hard, investing billions, to persuade young people how to think and feel about many of the big issues of the day, it has moulded and shaped their emotional response and their consciences through the stories it tells, the heroes and villains it casts.  Those values clash with the Bible at a fundamental level - gender, sex, identity, marriage, divorce, multiculturalism, pluralism and so on.  Those shaped by that education and media saturation seem to be rejecting the church because of its stance on many of these issues.  It just feels wrong to them.

But they are not rejecting the church if the church is teaching God's word faithfully.  I wonder if we haven't been blunt enough about diagnosing that.  If we've left them thinking its a church problem when really it is a problem with the very nature of God.  With believing God is good even when his word is at odds what society says.  With believing that God is just even as it clashes with the justice and laws of our nation.  With believing that God is loving when it contrasts with what our friends are posting on their social media pages.

It has not been the easiest weekend as I've sat and thought through these things.  Seeing people drift away who once ran well is heartbreaking, and this week I plan to spend a chunk of time praying for those folks.  But I also plan to pray for opportunity and boldness for myself and others to challenge those who are hiding a problem with the character of God behind the facade of disillusionment with the church.