It is no secret that people are leaving the church in droves.
People are disillusioned. There is a deep desire in people for the church to be a holy place. A place where they can come and experience God. A place where the deep longings of the soul can be satisfied. There is a hope within us that the church should be impacting the world. Loving the unlovable. Softening hard hearts. Feeding the malnourished. Caring for the poor and vulnerable. There is a belief that the church should be a place absent of the world’s trouble. A place of peace in a world of anxiety. Hope in a world of despair. Joy in a world of stress. Love in a world of competition.
This is what we feel the church should be.
But then we drive down the street, park our car, walk into a brick building, and enter the REAL church. It is nice enough. And there are glimpses of the church we envision. But if we stick around long enough, our grandiose visions of church slowly begin to die. Sometimes worship is mundane. The church loves and helps folks, but is hardly transforming cities. And the troubles of this world- the worry, and conflict, and tension- live inside the church, too.
The church in our dreams does not seem to match the church down the street. Some of us try our luck at a few more, hopping to and hoping for something better. But at the end of the day, no church we attend ever seems to fulfill what we think the church should be like.
And so we become disillusioned.
A good friend said this to me recently that he had finally become disillusioned with the church. He had been a pastor, director of a jail ministry, and most recently a hospital chaplain. So his words immediately saddened me (especially since he had been attending my church for the past few months).
But he went on to explain how his disillusionment was a GOOD and FREEING thing. To be disillusioned, he said, is to literally lose your illusions. And it was his illusion of church that kept him discontent and unable to embrace the real church.
I thought this was profound.
Too often times our vision of church is an illusion. It is a make-believe thing in our head. It is not real people, in real towns, honestly trying to follow and serve Jesus. And so when those real people do not look like the illusions in our head, we give up on them.
Our illusions are the problem.
More of us need to become dis-illusioned with the church. To let the illusions die so we will be able to (maybe for the first time) embrace the real church. Which, by the way, is the body of Christ. Is where we can find the presence of God. Is impacting the world, caring for the poor, loving the vulnerable, and hospitable enough to make room for sinners like us.
To be honest, the REAL church is impacting the world more than your illusionary one.
So be careful with what frustrates you. And here is to disillusionment.
