rants about the church

Occasionally on my regular trip around my favorite blog spots I will discover that no one has written anything new. In disappointment I sometimes click on someone else's links and venture out in the realm of unknown bloggers.

It's in this realm of the unknown that I often (too often) see a disgrunteled Christian's rant about the Church. Will people ever get tired of writing those rants? I don't think so. As long as there are miserable people in the world, those miserable people will find misery in their church, school, restaurants, neighborhoods, etc., etc., etc.

That's not to say that the Church and these places aren't deserving of some criticism. No matter what we do we could always do it better, at least in someone's mind.

However, I've been following Jesus for nearly 50 years now and I've never found anyplace better than the Church, even with all its human imperfections. And as long as there are humans involved in it, there will be some degree of failure. From Vacation Bible School as a youngster, to Youth Group as a teen, to a parent with children in Children's church and on up to Bible College for me and my kids, there is no place where I have found more people who would accept me, encourage me, invest in me and my family than in the church. People have loved me, given to me, sacrificed for me, challenged me, corrected me, and prepared me. I could go on.

Rants against the church seem to only increase anger because the person writing the rant starts out angry, then they get angrier as they spill their bile, then other people agree with them or argue with them and it all gets messier and messier.

Maybe people who want to write rants and condemn the church or evangelicalism or some other broad segment of the believing population should follow the example of the Apostle John who in Revelation wrote his letters to specific churches. It would seem that he had an actual relationship with those churches, had firsthand knowledge of them and tried to correct specific problems. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the internet ranters would be more specific instead of speaking in broad generalizations. What churches have they attended? Who specifically is a money grubber? Who is egotistical? Name some names. List some churches. What evidence do you have for your statements?

The impressions I have of the Church come from the following churches I have attended regularly at some point in my life: Galena, KS; Arapahoe, NE; Council Bluffs, IA; Lincoln, IL; Rutland, IL; Streator, IL; Brownsburg, IN. Maybe I've just been lucky to hit good churches in five different states. Maybe there are thousands of other messed up terrible churches out there that aren't worth the paint on their walls that I haven't stumbled upon yet. If so, name some names, how many churches, or television ministries or Bible Colleges, or ministers are you basing your comments on? Be specific.

I doubt if ranters will ever do that. In the meantime I will spend time worshipping with my fellow Christians, I'll attend Christian classes and learn from the teacher, I'll share in a Home Group, I'll serve as best I can and I know I will be blessed by this wonderful, imperfect group of people. I hope the ranters will eventually come around.