Attacking the very thing Jesus loves

I was scrolling through Facebook a couple of days ago and stumbled upon an article that essentially pointed out everything that’s wrong with the church. I suppose the author was well-intentioned, but all the article seemed to do was promote disunity in among followers of Christ. My heart was heavy as I read the comment feed. People were naming churches that “hurt” them and complaining about everything wrong with every church they had ever attended. Sometimes people miss the most common denominator. Do we realize that we are attacking the very thing Jesus loves…and died for? (Ephesians 5:25: “Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”).

As a pastor myself, I realize the church is far from perfect; I know this because I am a part of it. Don’t those outside of the church attack it enough? Do we really need to attack it from the inside as well? Yes, healthy criticism is good when done in the right spirit, by the right people, for the right reason. But most pontificating does not bring about real change. We puff our chest out and share our opinion as if it is doctrine and walk away not understanding the carnage we leave in our wake.

I have learned this in my 42 years of life: people notice…. everything. People notice how we treat each other, what we say about each other and how we interact with each other. Many people make decisions about Jesus and the church based on how they observe us acting towards one another. What is the message we send?

I get it—people get hurt in churches. People in the church have hurt me and I have hurt people myself, I own that. Why does this keep happening?  It happens because all churches are made up of people. Imperfect, broken people. Sometimes we use the word “hurt” as spiritual talk for “I did not get my way”. Other times “hurt” means someone had an opinion or made a decision I did not agree with; other times we genuinely hurt each other. Sometimes my wife hurts me, but I don’t go on social media and rant about it. Sometimes I hurt my wife and instead of telling a bunch of people we barely know, we talk about it—face to face. Yes, there are churches and leaders out there that need to be called to give account for their actions, but there is a better way than jumping up on our metaphorical soap box and lumping all churches of all time together in a speech of disappointment.

People are messy. I am messy.  Yet, despite all the mess, Jesus loved the church and died for her. The church is called “his bride”. You better be careful what you say about someone’s bride. If you say something bad about my wife, you and I are going to have problems. My marriage is not perfect, but that is not your issue; it is my issue, my wife’s issue, and the issue of a group of people whom we trust that we have let into our lives.

Let’s watch our words. Jesus loves his bride, the church, and each individual member of the church.

Let’s watch our words. Jesus loves his bride, the church, and each individual member of the church.