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Why bother with Church?
by Simon Jones - Sep 2001
A community of sinners
 These
four weaknesses are real. They infect most churches, if not
all, to some degree. Many churches are aware of them and seek
to counter them through a variety of means. Just being aware
of them is often sufficient to ensure that some or all of
the members do something to overcome their effects.
But these weaknesses should not stop people joining the church.
After all, we are drawn to Jesus because in him we find someone
who accepts the fact that we make mistakes, and who welcomes
us even though we are unattractive, selfish, bigoted, fragmented
people. We are damaged by life, and we are attracted to Jesus
because he offers to make us whole again. We are falling apart,
and Jesus offers to put us together again. We are weighed
down by the expectations of others as well as by our own expectations,
and Jesus says, 'Come to me, all you that are weary and are
carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'
Not surprisingly, when we come into church we find a group
of people like us, people who are broken, lonely, awkward,
selfish and damaged. We find people who are at various stages
of being put back together again by Jesus and for whom involvement
in the church is a vital part of that repair process - a process
in which we become more welcoming, better able to live with
uncertainty, less compartmentalised, more integrated people.
But it takes time. I think it was Eugene Peterson who said,
'Churches are groups of sinners led by sinners.' We must never
forget that fact in our consideration of what the church is
and what it should be, and in our expectations about how the
church will function and what it will do for us.
But it takes time. I think it was Eugene Peterson who said,
'Churches are groups of sinners led by sinners.' We must never
forget that fact in our consideration of what the church is
and what it should be, and in our expectations about how the
church will function and what it will do for us.
Church will always have its down side. There will inevitably
be clashes, harsh words, bad attitudes and unkind actions.
This is not a counsel of despair. It is a recognition that
where there are sinners, there is sin, and that sin manifests
itself in the way we treat each other and in the random events
that afflict us and throw us off course. But where there is
Jesus, there is also grace in abundance to counter sin and
its effects.
These two facts above all else - including a bad experience
of church - should mould our expectations and fuel our determination
to make belonging to the people of God work for our good and
for the good of the communities we live in. For, as we shall
see in the next chapter, it is what Jesus intended for those
who love him and who want to follow him in our all too messy
world.
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