The Church…Why I Won’t Give Up On Her

“…people who are too spiritual for the church are also too spiritual for the triune God who promises to be present and at work in this all-too-questionable Christian community”

– Shirley Gutherie, Always Being Reformed

I’ll be honest I often look at churches or think about “the church” in general and agree it is all-too-questionable.

Folks fight over wardrobe, worship style, how to “do church,” or even the color of the carpet. Not to mention the high-profile pastors who stumble into sexual sin.

In some ways it would be easier to chuck it all. I would love to find some like-minded and hearted believers and just “gather” with them. It would be easier, but is that what God has called us to do?

Every church since God began churches struggles because it is made up of a variety of people. People are sinful and people are different. “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12 God made us to work as a body, a body with weaker parts and a body with stronger parts. A body unified in Christ, but has diverse gifts and workings.

Working together as a body is difficult, painful, but completely worth it all. When a diverse group of people unified in the Spirit of God come together to form the body of Christ it is the most beautiful thing to behold. It is a taste of heaven when there will be people from every tribe and tongue and people worshiping God. And Christ – the head – holds the body together.

The members of the church are blessed to discover what it takes to work as a unified body. Not only do they learn to serve in their gifted areas, but they learn to give sacrificially, to think of Christ first, to willingly give of their time, finances, and gifts to further the kingdom work of God.

This side of heaven the church will never be perfect. However it is worth the time and energy to be a part of it…because God has chosen to work there.