Church: a human institution with a divine commission.

I've recently had conversations with a few different people about the value of attending Church. I know many who have deep faith, but no interest in "religion" (i.e. the church as an institution). Today I received this devotional thought from the pastor of Bowling Green 1st Christian Church (where my parents attend).

In a pointed editorial in Saturday's New York Times, Maureen Dowd... posed a question...  It is a question churches of every hue need to contemplate.  "How do you take spiritual direction from a church that seems to be losing its soul?"

I fear one of the reasons more and more people have opted out of church life rises from a feeling that the church doesn't have relevant answers for today's world.  Young adults have witnessed scandal after scandal that have rocked both Protestant and Catholic Churches.  They've seen churches fight and feud over things like the kind of music to be used in worship.   They've seen people turned away from the church because of their skin color, their sexual orientation, or their poverty.  They've seen television ministes get wealthy and committed small church pastors struggle for survival.  They've heard liberal Churches demonized and conservative churches minimized.  They've seen parents put on saintly faces on Sunday morning only to live like the devil the rest of the week.  "How do you take spiritual direction from a church that seems to be losing its soul?"

While those of us in the institutional church wring our hands and worry about what is to become of the church, it might be good to remember a young man who lived years ago who felt the religious structure of his day had disappointed.  "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers," (Matt. 21:13).  This young man wasn't anti-God.  Indeed he had come from God with a message of hope and grace.  He would die on a Roman cross for his new ideas and God would honor this young man by raising him from the dead. 

I pray those who feel the church is losing its soul won't give up on their quest for God.  And I pray they will recognize the church is capable of reformation and change.  It is a human institution with a divine commission.  When it works, it works better than any other human organization.  When it is filled with those committed to be the faithful hands and feet of Christ, nothing on earth can stop it.  If this is not the case today, may a new generation make it so.

Prayer: Lord, you give us the church as your body in the world.  We confess its flaws and weakness.  We pray for new strength and power to transform that which is corrupt into that which gives glory to you and bears witness to the life of Jesus.  Renew us, we pray, in the name of our brother Jesus. Amen

I ask myself: am I a stumbling block or a stepping stone to others who would seek Christ?