{"id":927,"date":"2012-10-02T06:06:05","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T10:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=927"},"modified":"2012-10-02T06:06:05","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T10:06:05","slug":"an-imperfect-church-imperfect-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=927","title":{"rendered":"an imperfect church… imperfect people"},"content":{"rendered":"

I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about one tangent comment from Sunday\u2019s post regarding divisiveness:\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cnot about how the contemporary American church is obviously often an imperfect reflection of who God is.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I realize that many will quickly quip how we can discern in totality who God is and what he wants from his people.\u00a0 That\u2019s an excellent question and an even greater pursuit.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a question that we probably can\u2019t answer in entirety.\u00a0 Yet the lack of answering in entirety should not dissuade us from attempting to answer.\u00a0 Often the greatest growth comes simply through the asking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I believe wholeheartedly, no less, that the contemporary American church is often an imperfect reflection.\u00a0 So are the European churches.\u00a0 Asian.\u00a0 African.\u00a0 Churches and people… we are each imperfect.\u00a0 And we are incapable of being pure substitutes for divine reality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

God is not reflected well by those who embrace terrorism.\u00a0 For those who believe that the killing of the infidel somehow merits eternal reward, such is inconsistent with the Creator of the world \u2014 the Creator, thus, too, of the people being mercilessly destroyed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

God is not reflected well by those who have physically or sexually abused others within the church.\u00a0 For those who have gut-wrenchingly misused the intimacy and respect forded by church authority, especially with young men and women, such is inconsistent with the One who calls us to respect all life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

God is not reflected well by those who in the name of God shout hatred…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

… nor by those who turn a blind eye to one side so they can remain focused on the other…<\/p>\n

… nor by those who believe either the Republican or Democrat parties are all good (after all, they, too, were created by imperfect people)…<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

God is not reflected well by those who are arrogant… compassionless… unforgiving… and self-focused.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No, this idea that we need to spend so much time focusing on self is not representative of who God is.\u00a0 My sense is God is much more humble than any of us could ever be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The challenge, therefore, with \u201call of the above\u201d lies within how we process what we see.\u00a0 The watching world often forgets that the church is imperfect..\u00a0 that all of God\u2019s people are imperfect… that you and me are imperfect.\u00a0 And in that forgetting we still make conclusions as to who God is and what he wants from us because we say, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be like that!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want anything to do with that!\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>But yet, those conclusions are based upon imperfection.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nowhere, friends, is it logical to derive conclusive, impassioned opinion based on what\u2019s imperfect \u2014 or perhaps better said, based on what may be inaccurate.\u00a0 Imperfect people \u2014 and thus inaccurate representations \u2014 are inherently incapable of modeling for us always and consistently who the Creator of the world actually is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So what are we to do?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One, we must refrain from defining who God is based on so much emotion and individual experience.\u00a0 How we feel doesn\u2019t always necessarily line up with what is good and true.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two, we must pursue God.\u00a0 If there is a God out there who wants something from his creation, then I want to figure that out.\u00a0 I\u2019m sensing something along the lines of, \u201cIf he loves me and created me, then he probably wants me to love him back.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Seems like a wise place to start.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And three, we must keep asking questions… even the tough ones.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Often the greatest growth comes simply through the asking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about one tangent comment from Sunday\u2019s post regarding divisiveness:\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cnot about how the contemporary American church is obviously often an imperfect reflection of who God is.\u201d   I realize that many will quickly quip how we can discern in totality who God is and what he wants from his people.\u00a0 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “an imperfect church… imperfect people”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[137,139,138],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","tag-american-church","tag-imperfect","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}