How’s the Church in America Doing?

I recently shared this quote by theologian N.T. Wright on Facebook:

“The church is designed to be the small working model of new creation, to hold up before the world a symbol—an effective sign of what God has promised to do for the world. Hence, to encourage the rest of the world to say, ‘Oh, that’s what human community ought to look like. That’s how it’s done.’”

Then I asked people to weigh in on how they think we’re doing so far. Most said they love their local church and feel it’s doing a good job in the community (which I celebrate btw). Others said we’re a mixed bag of the commendable and the horrible, which is, and always has been the case, I’m sure. One just responded with “lol.” I took that to mean he didn’t think we’re doing very well.

Here are a couple of my own thoughts on the state of the American Church.

I too love my church here in Santa Cruz. Sincere godly pastors and the members seem to love Jesus and others. I’m very glad for the community we have. But as I look at the state and reputation of the uppercase C “Church” in America, I’m pretty disappointed. I’m speaking generally now, but the Church as “an effective sign of what God has promised to do for the world,” (?). I’m not seeing it. Do we really display “what human community ought to look like”?

When the Church comes up in conversations I’m having with people outside the Church, I’ve had people laugh in my face. We can blame the devil or social media or bad doctrine, or we can be honest about how divided we are amongst ourselves, how we’ve conflated Christianity with political party, and how we’ve replaced true spirituality with what someone said to me about our super-sized glitzy presentations as “Christian razzle dazzle!” I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired of the long line of high-profile megachurch pastors whose theology may have been solid and their oratory impressive, but whose lifestyles have been found out to be devilish. Or the so-called “prophets” who predict political outcomes. And what about the billions we’ve spent on buildings while neglecting the people whom Jesus demonstrated were his primary target, the poor and vulnerable.

I love my church too. And there are many many great churches throughout our great country. Maybe the good ones outnumber those less than good. I don’t know. But it seems to me that with all our “razzle dazzle” we’re losing rather than gaining kingdom ground toward being the “small working model of new creation.” We have a lot of work to do to be worthy of it being said of us: “Oh, that’s what human community ought to look like. That’s how it’s done.”

Jesus had nothing but praise for two of the seven churches of Asia Minor whom he addressed in Revelation 2-3. One of the two was lean and mean by reason of the intense persecution they experienced. Shallow believers must’ve fled the scene leaving only people willing to die for Christ. To the rest of those churches Jesus had nothing or near-to-nothing to commend. Yet he promised them rewards if they’d suck up their pride, repent of their behaviors, and “overcome.”

Let’s be the Church he wants to see, that we must be, and the world needs us to be.