Churchianity Revisited

For some time now and especially on some days--wowzers!--I halfway joke that I'm trying to get out of the church. Not that I'm anywhere near perfect, mind you, but I get so frustrated when we repeatedly fall so far short of our potential and seem so misguided in our emphases. Whatever, once again Eugene Peterson comes to my rescue:

Much anger towards the church and most disappointments in the church are because of failed expectations. We expect a disciplined army of committed men and women who courageously lay siege to the worldly powers; instead we find some people who are more concerned with getting rid of the crabgrass in their lawns. We expect a community of saints who are mature in the virtues of love and mercy, and find ourselves working on a church supper where there is more gossip than there are casseroles. We expect to meet minds that are informed and shaped by the great truths and rhythms of scripture, and find persons whose intellectual energy is barely sufficient to get them from the comics to the sports page. At such times it is more important to examine and change our expectations than to change the church, for the church is not what we organize but what God gives, not the people we want to be with but the people God gives us to be with--a community created by the descent of the Holy Spirit in which we submit ourselves to the Spirit's affirmation, reformation, and motivation. There must be no idealization of the church.If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power within us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. --2 Corinthians 4:7(From Living the Message: Daily Help for Living the God-Centered Life)

Back to work--my duty and, more times than not, my delight!