Who Hurt You?
Take out all the people and the church won't be so painful, but then what would we lose in the process? On church hurt and the people who fill her pews.
Photo Credit: Unsplash
I recently heard someone say, “the church didn’t hurt you, people did.” It took me a minute to process the statement, given that so much heartache is wrapped up in church hurt these days. At the end of the day, a church is a building at minimum, and buildings are benign. They can’t hurt people. If they fall, it’s because of human error either in the building or the materials. A church is an institution, and while much evil has happened at the hands of institutions, at the end of the day an institution can do nothing without a leader at the helm and a culture undergirding it.
One of the prevailing reasons for walking away from the church is because of hurt. A pastor has a moral failure, and you lose all sense of trust in his leadership. A leader lies to you, so you wonder if anyone has integrity anymore. Your community group fails to show up in crisis, or is divided by gossip or lack of unity, and you find yourself bereft of care and support. The church vision shifts away from the convictions you hold. It’s no longer a safe space for you to process, grieve, or doubt. Division and dissension rule more than the word of God—what hope is there for the church?
I don’t think church hurt is a new thing given how much of the New Testament is spent talking about churches filled with conflict. The Corinthian church had immoral people in their ranks, and they didn’t care. They were tribal and often took sides. They fought about trivial things. They even took each other to court. And they kept poor people out of the fellowship gatherings. The Galatian church was so off base that Paul had nothing good to say about them. James writes to the church urging them to reject the sin of partiality—where they wanted to give honor to the rich people, while neglecting the poor church members among them. Peter wouldn’t eat with Gentiles, even though they claimed the same Savior. This isn’t even counting the churches in Revelation, not to mention all the atrocities God’s people have committed against each other throughout history (like slave-holding churchmen and pastors in our own country before the Civil War).
Church people can be a bad bunch, myself included.
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