Church things on the tyne are nicely hotting up. In fact I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to develop a wiki-style website to track what's happening. Details to be published in due course!
We met last week for our first Spirited Exchanges gathering (incidentally check out the new Spirited Exchanges UK website- looks good, well done steve!) and all shared who we are and our 'Stage of Faith'. I talked about Darlington and how that had tainted my understanding of church. Another member of the group shared that she'd similarly been screwed by the church but after much reflection she came to the conclusion that the church is still a good and godly institution, it just contains some really stupid people!
I've been thinking about it for a week now so that means it's certainly worth blogging about.
I agree that the church is a good and godly institution, and certainly it does contain 'stupid' people. The gospel is for the stupid, the failing, the people that have messed up and the people that don't have all the answers, so I think it's good that you find these people in church. If we're honest with ourselves, we're all stupid in many ways, and arrogant, and unloving and judgemental. I have been guilty of being very critical of the church in the past, but it has been humbling to realise that a lot of my criticisms could so easily be directed back at me. The Bible defines what church ought to be - a body of people centred round the gospel, taking God's word seriously, worshipping and praying to him and trying to share his love and truth with unbelievers. I think this is what we should be striving for and we should be praying for God's grace and wisdom so that we can serve others and encourage them in their faith.
Posted by: Anne | February 19, 2007 at 09:15 PM