9.29.2006

Simple Thought #4: Is Church Broken?

A good friend of mine asked me yesterday, "Do you think the church is broken?"
He wasn't talking about any church in particular, but THE church.
My answer: "Yes, but....."

Yes, the church is broken...or at least parts of it are. It really doesn't take long to identify lots of broken parts in the church.

But, the church has always been broken...or at least parts of it. I have a strange feeling that if we re-designed church the way we think it should be (simple church, authentic community, socially active, Acts 2, new leadership paradigm, etc.) it would still be broken, just broken in different ways. If we got rid of all the big buildings and met in homes, I bet it would be about six months before we started saying "Wow, wouldn't it be nice to have a big room somewhere so we could all get together once in a while?" If we flattened the leadership paradigm, I bet it would be about six months before we started saying "Gee, it sure would be nice if somebody was in charge around here!"

Yes, the church is broken...but.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

love the blog kurt - i just found the other day as i was thinking ahead for this years NYWC. I am a seminary student and a junior high youth pastor who is exposed to quite a bit of "broken church" language at sem. It does get down to lots of semantics etc. but I wonder if we were to "fix" the church, how would that impact our roles as youth leaders? you didn't quite say this, but it seems like a contentment issue - if it were one way, we would want it the other. Sure there are things to fix, that is the nature of the fallen world. As for me - Lord, start your "fixing" in my life!