Creative Scribble

When people hate our country they burn flags and plot terrorism. When people hate a sports team they boo or steal the other team’s concrete mascot. But when people hate the church, usually they do nothing. They just block it out and move on with their lives.

While most people may not admit to hating the church, the reality is most people do. They view the church as irrelevant and boring. Oprah seems to have more spiritual insight that can make a difference in their lives. And she’s a lot less boring (I mean, come on. Who wouldn’t want to be given a free car and be told that they can believe whatever and be fine - all at the same time!)

So who’s to blame? We are.

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Pastors, Christians, televangelists, street preachers, deacons, elders, and the whole shebang. We’ve allowed people to believe from our actions that what we believe isn’t important enough to us to communicate it to them in a way that they will understand and relate to. Even if we do, we’ve allowed them to believe that we don’t really believe it. At least we don’t act like it.

Statistics show that an entire generation isn’t going to church. Even Christian kids don’t like church. More than two-thirds of Christian teenagers stop going to church when they graduate high school. And why shouldn’t they? We cover their faces with whipped cream and throw cheese puffs at them to have fun and attract a crowd, but we never address their concerns, their fears, their hurts and their questions.

So they become adults who never saw the church as relevant. And when they do go to a church, it’s still not relevant. Their questions don’t get answered. They have to fit in to a mold. They aren’t communicated to in a way that makes sense.

Someone must change that. Jesus died for the church to exist. The least we can do is make it a place that reaches the irreligious, not the religious. After all, that’s what Jesus said he came to do. So why aren’t we?

That’s why “another church” will come to this community. Because it’s time for people to have a chance to stop hating church.