Church--Is it good or bad?

Bonhoeffer has a wonderful book entitled "Life in Community" which importantly proclaims that Christianity is not an individual pursuit but is living life with other Christians. This concept is so important. Without living in community, I don't come to grips with my sinfulness, and I don't learn to truly express grace to others.

But, there is a problem--the Church. A few nuggets from Tullian:

"All too often, the church is appealing to the kinds of people who ran away from Jesus and appalling to the kinds of people who ran to Jesus."

"I meet so many people who have left the church, not because they have given up on Jesus, but because the church has given up on Jesus."

"If churches, and our church in particular, aren't attracting the kinds of people that Jesus attracted, then people aren't hearing us proclaim the same message that Jesus proclaimed."

These snippets come from a sermon that Tullian preached on May 12--"No Strings Attached." It is one of the most courageous sermons because he speaks the truth about the local church.

Going back five years, when I met a person that had quit attending church but still claimed to be a Christian, I wondered whether they were truly a Christian. In fact, I thought they were probably not. Now, when I meet such a person, I most often find that they have more of the hallmarks of a true Christian than those who attend church.

So, what to do:

1)run to a church where the pastor admits specific sins in his life, not merely that he is a sinner;

2)run from a church where the pastor is placed on a pedestal;

3)run to a church where the message is pure unadulterated grace--that God loves you even when you are sinning;

4)run from a church where the message is "Yes grace, but now you need to live a holy life" or "Yes grace, but live to glorify God;"

5)run to a church where the pastor preaches the Gospel every Sunday;

6)run from a church where the pastor gives you five steps to love your wife better.

If you can't find a church that does these things, it's okay not to attend. Instead, have "church" with your friends who know that they are egocentric sinners in need of grace. Go to lunch with these friends. Have dinner with these friends. Share your hopes, dreams, sins, troubles, and travails with them--all the time doing so in light of the miraculous grace of God.

Hell--Serling's "A Nice Place to Visit"

I have been struggling with this idea of Hell as eternal punishment (the wrath of God) for those who don't profess Christ as their Lord and Savior.  For years, I didn't struggle with it.  For years, I just accepted it as true.  Then, as my life with Jesus evolved and matured, Jesus' grace became so heart-arresting and all-consuming that I couldn't imagine Jesus sending anyone to Hell.  But I have experienced Hell in the "here and now."

Hell is trying to make it your own way.  Hell is trying to make it on your own with a few prayers thrown in when the going gets too tough.  Hell is living in isolation.  I lived in isolation even though I was married and had friends, because I didn't share my innermost cares, concerns, or fears with them.  I didn't think anyone could help me make it through this life--not my wife, not my friends--well maybe God could but I didn't see Him doing it.

On the outside, I looked like I had it all together--beautiful wife and kids, successful law career, but on the inside it was a constant struggle to make sure that my family looked like a "good Christian family" and that my law career succeeded.  This wasn't freedom in Christ, but slavery to the law of my and other's expectations.  So, my life may have looked good (a nice place to visit), but it was killing me to live there.

Living in Hell was a present tense reality for me for a number of years.  This view that Hell is in the "here and now" is consistent with the views of Jesus and Paul.  Jesus spoke repeatedly about the "here and now."  Jesus said that the Kingdom of God was breaking through into this world.  This world, without the intervening grace of God, is Hell.

Paul said that God's judgment isn't so much that God is inflicting his wrath upon us through His direct actions, but rather that God is abandoning us to our own desires.  When our desires are to run our own lives--to order our world the way that we see fit--we live lives of desperation.  We are desperate to make our lives good, but the burden is entirely upon us.  This leads to wrecked marriages, broken  families, and suicide.

So, living life without accepting the love of God (the logos--the truth behind the universe) is to live in opposition to life.  Living in opposition to life is to live in Hell.  As Paul Zahl once said:  "Hell begins now.  Hell now is Highway 280 during rush hour, but with Starbucks thrown in.  Hell eternally is Highway 280 without Starbucks."

The Bible speaks a lot about the hell of living without accepting God's love, and the Bible is very graphic in this regard.  When I think back to my years when I thought I was a Christian, but before I truly knew and accepted God's love, the horrific descriptions in the Bible are apt and true.  I'm still not sure about the eternal nature of Hell, but it clearly exists in the "here and now" when we live outside of a loving relationship with God.

For a terrific explanation of Hell, see Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 28--"A Nice Place to Visit."  Serling was a student of the human condition, and his explanations are peerless.