The Church's Many Flaws

As I mentioned in my first post in this series, some Millennials who have left Church or God or both have taken great pains to advertise their apostasy online. Many claim that Church is their biggest reason for leaving Church, the worst offender being conservative evangelicalism. Here's what they have against Church:

They are not diverse enough.
They are culturally irrelevant.
They have no respect for the arts.
They allow for abuse to go unchecked.
Their music is outdated.
They prooftext and distort the Bible.
They worship the Bible over God.
They have failed the LGBT community.
They are anti-woman and sexist.
They make an idol of family.
They alienate singles, single parents, blended families, divorced people.
They are all Republican.
Nobody is authentic about their sins.
They judge and compare each other.
They focus too much on sin.
They are only about keeping up appearances.
They turn dogmas into doctrine.
They are hypocrites.
They spank their kids too much.
They become personality cults.
They have power-hungry leaders.
They are narrow-minded.
They are failing and dying out because they can't keep up with the times.

I didn't have to google "bad churches" to write that list. I wrote it off of the top of my head in 3 minutes. That's because I know. I get it. I agree that these flaws exist. There are truths - valuable, convicting, helpful truths - to these critiques.

No one, especially Church leaders, will deny that there are serious problems in churches today. But how one reacts to these problems is key. Everything we do and say and think about the Church makes these problems either worse or better, and everything we say about Church speaks of what we believe about it. And I truly think that many Millenials have completely forgotten what the Church truly is.

What is the Church? Let's remember...

Church, both local and universal, was founded by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, in whom the fullness of God dwells.
Jesus died and rose again for her.
He loves her.
He made himself one with her.
She is the Bride, he the Bridegroom.
She is the body, he the head.
He washes her with the pure water of his word - the word that says, Beloved, you are clean, you are mine, I love you. You are beautiful and precious and my own. 
He lavished her with gifts of speaking, teaching, healing, and spreading the power of his Word.
He filled her with God's Spirit, which brings newness of life.
He values every part of his body, the Church, from the pinky toe to the fingernail. When she stubs her toe he cries. When she cuts her finger she uses her other hand to mend it.
He clothed her with pure white linen, for she is his royal and priestly one.
She is the temple in whom God himself dwells.
She is Jesus to the world.

Conservative American evangelical churches are a part of Christ's Bride. 

There are some who like to focus on the list of flaws and forget the list of promises (not to mention the things churches do well). For one reason or another, the list of flaws makes for exciting entertainment, especially to post-evangelical, post-Church Millenials. But when Millennials tout the Church's flaws and trials and make them big news, they are intentionally choosing to not be a solution to the Church's problems. They are certainly not fueled by God's passionate, faithful and jealous love for his beloved Bride. 

Rather, the essence of this cynical and scoffing ethos is that there is no Jesus at the head of Church. There is no life-giving Spirit inside of her. There is no word of grace and freedom spoken over her. There is no hope for her. She will remain in her sins. She is not a spiritual entity established and ordained by God the Father, but just a man-made, corrupt sham.

Lies.

People who promote these lies are devoid of the Holy Spirit. Their words are the doctrines Satan. How so? Because to say that the Lord Jesus has forsaken his Bride is blasphemy against God's goodness and faithfulness. To say that his Body has been beheaded is an outright lie.

By their degrading words they grab the Bride from the side of her Bridegroom. Then they cut off her Head and toss it aside, for she wasn't worthy of it. They rip the pure white linens from her body, stab her multiple times and drag her corpse through the mud. Once they reach the center of Vanity Fair, they leave her there where horses and pigs and chickens can trample her, crush her, pick at her and deficate on her. They invite strangers to throw their trash at her. And as they stand there and watch her breathe her last breath, they smile as they call her names and blame her for her own mutilation and death.

Geez, Bethany. Calm down.

Hey, I'm only speaking from the emotions that God has for his Bride. Apostle Paul was probably fueled by similar emotions when he said he wished the deceptive teachers proclaiming salvation by circumcision would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. And Jesus said the judgment for anyone who causes his children to falter will be bad enough that they would rather be thrown into the ocean with a millstone attached to their neck and drown. The writer of Hebrews said it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, the consuming fire who lit up Mount Sinai above the Israelites. The same consuming fire that devoured Aaron's arrogant sons. And the more I read these accounts, these letters, and see these passionate emotions of God, the more I see that there is a time and place for such emotions, though acting on them by dispensing punishment is for God alone. But I digress....

We were not redeemed by Jesus to cater to the world's cynical view of Church. We don't need to waste our time dwelling on all her failures. We need to be willing to get our hands dirty and to do the grunt work that is not recognized or publicized because it's not controversial or enticing enough for our ungodly culture.

We will identify and ignore those who deny the Church's salvation. Jesus has made her clean and will remove all sin from her in the end. He will never forsake her even if she forsakes him. He will protect and defend her in the end. He is coming in the clouds with fearsome power and glory. 

We are not to be surprised that the Church is struggling without and within. Her Originator said this would be. But instead of giving in to despair over her, expecting her to be perfect and measuring her by man-made, superficial, capricious, culturally-dictated standards, we will look to the one who bought her, who took her out of mire and set her on the rock.

My generation is needed - no, wanted - in the Church, but many of them are failing her. Millenials need to stop adding to the pain and humiliation of the Church's sins. Millenials need to be very careful who they listen to. Because when they mock her and drag her name through the mud, they are in essence mocking Jesus and dragging Jesus through the mud, and he won't take kindly to that.

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This is the second post in my series on apostasy in my generation.

Scriptures: Exodus 19:16-19, Leviticus 10, Luke 17, John 14-17, Galatians 5, Ephesians 4 and 5, 2 Peter 3, 1 Peter 2:4-12, 1 John 2:12-14, Romans 7:4-6, 1 Corinthians 12-14, Colossians 2:1-4, Revelation 2-3, 21.