Requiem for the Church
Written by pfabgirl
I walked out of church today mid-sermon. I don’t know that I will ever go back. I walked out because I felt an overwhelming urge to stand and yell:
What does any of this have to do with our lives today? What has Jesus to say about the thousands of refugees and immigrants in unsafe boats in tortuous waters? What hope lies in Jesus for those who are oppressed by government-sanctioned brute force? What has Jesus to say about injustice and inequality and what, my God, is the church’s role of ridding the world of such systems? What is the church to do about the world as it is — not in the kingdom come?
There are so many questions that the church doesn’t — won’t — answer. How does one reconcile the Jesus who came to set the captives free with the church who (as a whole) turns its gaze away from those who are oppressed. Not oppressed on the far off continent of Africa where we send money and missionaries, but here in America. How do we make sense of a church that preaches peace and safety when there is blood in our streets — when our children don’t make it home from a trip to the corner store?
The church is dead. Perhaps it has been dead for a very long time. I do not know how long I’ve been sitting with this cold, unresponsive Body, but the stench has grown strong enough to force me from its pews. I cannot bear to greet another brother or sister blind to the reality of our world and oblivious to the gospel that can heal it.
I have been in church all of my life — by compulsion when I was a child and by choice as an adult — and I do not know what comes next. My faith in the Jesus of the bible remains, but I cannot — I will not –sit another week in the midst of death and decay that lives in the American church.
Awaiting Christ’s return myself. I use WordPress to try to get the real Word out. No church to call home. Too Christless for me.
While I understand your sentiment, I strongly feel that Christ has called us to live in communion with one another, but I think you’ve hit on an important point: where is your home in the body if the Church is dead? how do you find community? Thank you for your comment
I am so sorry for your experience. I’ve sat in dead churches and only until recently have I had the pleasure to sit in an alive one. They are out there. They are not perfect but you will know them by their love. They are in the trenches in the rough and ugly places and they are shedding light on the beauty in those places. I know it’s discouraging but don’t blame the body as a whole for some weak parts. God will take care of any lukewarm bodies. I hope you find a new, radical home. The church needs you, your passion and your courageous heart.
Thank you very much for your gracious and encouraging words. I was pretty frustrated yesterday but you are right, there are radical churches out there!
I can totally relate to your frustration. I spent 9 years in the same church and the last 2 years I knew it was lukewarm and I wasn’t growing. I’ll definitely be praying you find the right church home to plant your roots in!
I have felt the same way about church before as well. For a long period of time I did not attend church. What I can say about that is that it didn’t help me to grow in my faith, and as believers we are not called to go it alone. I haven’t found one church that is fully alive the way Jesus would want it to be but there are churches that are more alive and active in their faith than others. Its always easy to see the ways other people miss the mark but what exactly are you doing to help refugees, or the poor, or the sick, or those in prison, or all the people around you who don’t know God?
Hey Sabina, I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my blog post. I completely get your point about getting the dust out of my own eye before pointing out the beam in someone else’s, but I think that one can critique a system without offering a 5 point plan for it’s improvement. Yes, I am busy doing the work that God has called me to with regard to racial injustice in America, but the American church as a whole has a damning track record with regard to racial justice and oppression in this country. And that hasn’t seem to change very much in the last century. I think it’s very important for Christians — people who are indwelt and led by the holy Spirit — to call the church out on it’s silence and it’s support of injustice. If not us, then who? Again, I really appreciate your thoughts and am open to further dialogue!