Series: Where the "Good" Church Gets it Wrong

I love the church with all the flaws. I love the American church and I don't want to see it go away. I think the church is vital, but it's no secret that I am pretty disconnected from the church these days. After spending my early career in full-time vocational ministry, I have found several things that don't sit well in the local church. These are flaws that are often ignored and overlooked. These are deep-seated issues, problems that I believe need to be addressed, but get ignored.

I think it's pretty easy to see we have a lot of churches in this country that have turned away and flat out ignore the Bible. They have walked away from teachings on sex, marriage, homosexuality, the value of life, and a host of other issues. Churches have compromised on a myriad of social issues, and we have seen the liberal church embrace anything. There is a universal component to their salvation method that doesn't require Jesus. These churches are broken, and I'm not talking about these churches in this post. That's too easy. You can find the issues with the liberal church on your own. I'm talking about good churches, Bible-believing (mostly) who are trying to do the right thing and live by what the Bible teaches. For the most part, they are doing what they feel the Bible calls them to do. The issue is the problems that have crept in under the door that no one wants to talk about. Sometimes they are talked about, and often when they are, they are talked about as good things. They are focused on and highlighted. I have a feeling this may offend, and upset a few of you, and many of you won't agree with me. That's ok, I'm not Francis Chan, I know I can't say something like "you need to change your entire paradigm" and have you nod your head in agreement and solidarity and then not do any of it. I'm not a fool, I know that no one will read this and change the way they do church entirely, but maybe we can begin to change the nature of the church. Maybe someday we can solve these issues and make what I believe to be a more Biblically sound church in America.

The list is short, but my comments will be long, so instead of making this one post, I am going to break this up into several. Look for them, hope you will read and think about my position. I think we can really see great things happen for the church in America if we are willing to fix the things that are broken and address the things that hold us back. Change is hard, people don't like it and churches are very bad at it. In the end, I think these things will really help us reach a dying, lost and corrupt country. It starts at home.