The Church's Pink Nails

Somewhere between the "concert" worship and conversational mile wide sermon I had a shocking thought: "I think I hate the Church." I replayed in my mind the churches I have seen, of the Church during the great revivals, and went back in my mind to the Church before and after Luther's 95 Theses, all the way back to the first century Church and I thought to myself, "She pretty much sickens me."

Wrong thought for a good little God fearing, Jesus loving, Spirit led PK to have, let alone for her to share with anyone who reads this... but indulge me a few minutes of your time and I hope I can explain to you what I am beginning to learn about the Church.

Throughout church history I might venture to say the biggest problem has been that of a monumental collision between Truth and Relevance. The Truth is vital. It is foundational to our churches. Without Truth we would be nothing more than a cult. All to often it is unpopular and uncomfortable but it is always glorious, and its weight is well worth it. Relevance is not bad. In fact it is true that we should always be changing the method of the message and not the other way around. Its not to be the other way around because then the quest to cultural or moral relevance runs the great risk of dampening the light of the Truth.

Since the start of the Church the maddening balancing act of the message and the method has revealed some of her unique beauty marks and at other times created a wart. She is fallen, She is broken, She is flawed, and yes, sometimes She is downright ugly.

But she is BEAUTIFUL. Its a beauty I can't describe. A beauty I can't understand. A beauty that draws me in. A beauty I can't walk away from.

Each Sunday I am drawn back, I crave to see a glimpse of her deep beauty. I hunger for it. But what is the great Beauty? That is what I can't put my finger on. Its the "Mona Lisa smile" of the Christian faith...what is behind that front? Is is it the Father's free gift, the sacrificial love of the Son, the presence of the Spirit? Is it the fellowship that grows out of believers coming together in His name?

She is complex and crazy, privy to scandal, involved in politics, She is used and abused, battered and broken. But she somehow keeps nourishing us, supporting us. We need her. She is like Lisa in Girl, Interrupted. You watch her fall apart and take others with her, you watch as she destroys lives and causes great pain. But by the end of the movie you are fighting for her to be the woman she is inside, the woman buried under the many hurts. You fight for her to overcome her labels and to be Lisa.

Its a beautiful scene at the end, Lisa is lying in restraints at the hospital, Susanna comes in to say goodbye. She pulls out some pink nail polish. As they oddly, tensely say goodbye Susanna paints Lisa's nails. Something is that act reminds her of her beauty, reminds her that she is a woman. Something that causes her to hope.

The Church is the bride of Christ. Sadly she may never fully look the part but if you look throughout her expansive history she has, at least, always had pink nails. Do you see it?

Invisible Bibles in the Invisible Pews

What is a church without the phyiscal Word?

Sadly on my great church hunt I have been to more churches where the Bible is removed from the people. Where I sit with my Bible open and my blue scribbled notes covering the pages and I sit there and feel embarassed...feel out of place. All because I brought my Bible, and heavens no! I took it out when the pastor started preaching. This should not be!!!

I know there are a lot of churches out there who do still expect their congregation to bring their Bibles to church, who expect them to be read throughout the week and not collect dust. Most of the churches I've been going to are newer, emerging and very trendy. The passage is plastered onto big screens alongside the notes everyone should take. The teaching rarely moves from one passage in a book to another. Essentially there is no need for the Bible anymore.

In an attempt to draw more people in, to make them feel more comfortable God's infalliable Word, a fundamental backbone to our faith, is getting pushed aside, covered up. And this is a great tragedy. How do all these new believers, new attenders, old believers, anyone...how does anyone know what they are really being taught? Is the pastor preaching heresies? At one church I visited he most certainly was. Is the pastor misintrepting a key passage? At one church he was.

And worse than not allowing the congregation to follow in the way of the Bereans, it does nothing to inspire or convict one to read their Bible throughout the week. If the example is not set, the bar not raised why bother? No one will ask, there's no need to.

We, the American Church, are very priveleged. We are not the underground Church in China. Every believer in America can have multiple Bibles, and probably do! The Church in China maybe has one per church. It sickens me to see the path so many churches are starting to walk down.

There is a place for all of the churches within the Global church in Revelation 2 and 3. Sadly I condsider some of these new emerging churches, though they grow at alarming speed, have great programs, integrate art into worship, reach out to their surrounding community, yet they do no place a high enough importance on the Word...I consider them to be like the Ephsian church, forsaking their first love, or like the Laodicean church, becoming lukewarm just waiting to be spit out.

Psalm 119.