No offense to my emergent friends, but I’m starting to grow weary of all your diatribes about how the Church has failed in its calling. Tell me true – is there nothing good to say about the church? I know that it is a good thing to bring shortcomings and weaknesses to the forefront of everyone’s attention. It’s the only way to make sure those things get fixed.
But I also know that it’s good practice to highlight the things that continue to be done right. All gloom and doom all the time only makes people frustrated and depressed. Calling to light only the bad things makes folks just want to throw up their hands and say, “Well, then, what’s the point in even trying?” And it puts a sour taste in our mouth for those of us who are in churches that _are_ doing things right.
Is the church perfect? Of course not. It’s composed of imperfect people. And yes, there are a lot of churches out there that don’t really have any idea how far off the mark they’ve gotten. I guess I’m just tired of reading the same bits of holier-than-thou garbage from so many Christians leveled at their brethren. Are we not supposed to be of one mind, one body, and one spirit here? Do you not see how your constant dogging of Christian shortcomings is actually contributing to the problems and divisions in the church? Do you not see that we are _all_ part of the problem, even as we are trying to fix it?
I’ve been gradually shortening my Christian blogroll over the last couple of weeks (and there are a couple of more that are dangerously close to being removed today) exactly because I’m sick of reading the same tripe from so many place. I’m sorry to have to do this; I think a lot of these people do have good and intelligent things to say and add to the discussion. But there is a lot of negativity, as well, and I’ve found that it hinders and hampers my own spiritual walk and causes me to be negative toward them, as well.
Folks, there’s more to fixing the church than talking and complaining about it. Yes, the web is a great place to share ideas, to talk and sound off, to try to figure things out. It expands the discussion to an unbelievably large audience. But here’s the real question – are you actually _doing_ anything about it? Are you actually involved in your local church voicing your concerns to the pastors and deacons and elders and members? Or are you just sitting in your dark little corner pouting and moping because nobody will listen to you? And if you are, what kind of Christian does that make _you_? What does it make _me_?
Just had to get that off my chest…
