The Bride

As I evaluate American Christianity it's really easy to become angry and embittered towards the church. We claim to have the love of Christ dwelling inside of us and talk about being led by the Holy Spirit. At the same time, there is widespread slavery and hunger all over our broken world. Yet there is a huge divide between the wealthy Christianity of America and these broken people all over the world and I'm not talking about bodies of water.

It is easy to come to the conclusion that the church isn't addressing these problems so even though Jesus may be the answer, the church certainly isn't. Many come to this conclusion and walk away from church altogether, overwhelmed by the stench of hypocrisy.

I get it.

Quitting on the bride of Christ, however, is not the answer. Jesus died for it so I'm certainly not going to quit on it.

In fact, Jesus had some pretty strong things to say about the church that makes me think it is the only hope for the problems our world is facing today.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul talks about how Christ reconciled the world to himself through his death on the cross and when he left he left gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That's pretty scary for me. Remember the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring when Frodo tries to give the ring to Gandalf but he refuses? Gandalf knew he couldn't handle it. He wasn't good enough.

That's how I feel about the ministry of reconciliation Christ has given us. I know me all too well. Failure is inevitable. The way I see it, we are one ugly bride that seems incapable of accomplishing the task we have been given. Thankfully, Christ saw us differently.

He said the gates of hell wouldn't prevail against the church. We are his chosen method of changing the world and taking the good news to every tribe and tongue on the face of the earth. There is no 'Plan B'.

He loves the church so much that he died for it and gave us his Spirit. You should love it too. It's the Spirit who makes this possible. A good starting point for being "led by the Spirit" is doing what he already commanded in the Bible. Feed the poor and hungry. Protect the fatherless and the widows. (See Isaiah 58, James 1:27, Luke 3:11, and a million others)

It's not going to get any better until we realize that "stench of hypocrisy" is coming from our own selves. You are probably a part of the problem. So am I. So don't make suggestions to your pastor. Don't just express your ideas. Start being Jesus to "least of these" in your city and watch the rest of the bride jump on board. Become an agent of change.

Love the church. Be the church.