Oh The Delicious Irony

I was reading over at a blog of a friend of a friend (Thursdays at 4:25PM are terribly slow and boring for me, what can I say?). He made mention of the recent trend of people, Christian people, to slam the church.

Apparently, God is great but the church failed them. Now, I understand that point of view. I really do. Many times I have felt like telling someone who doesn't know about the life-saving power of Jesus Christ; "Listen, Jesus is awesome. Church just stinks." But that is not true. There are aspects of church life that are out of touch, antiquated or flat out pointless. And there are some current movements in church that make the message of the bloodied body and the risen Savior too precious. Too cute. Half of these churches must make their living producing those rotten cutesy poopsy email forwards I delete (seriously, are there three more stomach churning letters than fwd?). But the church is still the best, most efficient way to share Christ with a dying world and help change lives for the better.

And people from Todd Agnew (that voice may be the most offensive thing ever played on CCM radio stations - like Bob Dylan and the lead singer from The Crash Test Dummies had a kid) to every post-modern author (Donald Miller etc) couldn't get in line fast enough to tell us what is so wrong with church.

I am not a simpleton. I know the church has problems. It always has. It always will. Because the church is filled with people. Broken and flawed. So, instead of bashing the church, why not rail away at sin or at temptation or at not knowing enough scripture to stand up underneath both?

And if I hear that stinking Todd Agnew song about Jesus not being welcome in my church because his feet were bleeding on the carpet one more time, I am going to shoot someone in the face. Honestly, how ignorant is that song? I appreciate the message: sometimes it is hard to find Jesus in the church. Well, crap, sometimes it is hard to find Jesus in my life too. But to say that Jesus would not be welcome because of his bloody feet is ridiculous. Is Jesus that much of a Bethlehem redneck that he cannot wipe off the blood that Agnew has decided to coat on his feet? Is he such a Nazarene hillbilly that he doesn't have enough sense to clean up? Did he just crawl off of the cross and come into my church all nasty and bleeding? Really? I remember an awful lot of feet washing in the New Testament. And Jesus was doing most of it! How hypocritical of him to come wandering in, all bloody and gross, when he KNOWS how much that new church building cost. And poor Mrs. Bennett. She spent so many hours agonizing over the perfect color of the carpet. Shoot, I saw what she did to Guy Akins and all he did was spill his coffee. Jesus better watch his back! Jesus and his bloody feet...spare me the sermon, Toddles. You're preaching to freaking choir.

Which brings me to the title of this rambling, sprawling and disjointed post. Isn't it ironic that without the broken, terribly cold, unwelcoming, icky church to hear it, people like Todd Agnew and the new guard of nay-saying POMO's (that is hip for Post Modern) would be preaching to...well, nobody. The church made those suckers rich. The church lined their pockets with money so they could stand up and speak out against it. If Todd Agnew felt unwelcome at church, well, maybe that has more to do with his drive-by-shooting of U2's great "When Love Comes to Town" on that horrific U2 tribute album than it does with his dirty feet. And if he has dirty feet, wipe 'em off. We have mats for JUST that purpose.

Folks, don't bite the hand that feeds you. Don't preach about how the church is broken. Help fix the broken one you go to. There will always be something wrong with every church. But pointing it out and then agreeing with everyone else who has a faux-hawk and a soul patch that church sucks isn't doing God, that church or the Kingdom a whole heckuvalotta good.

How many hurdles did that scathing critique of the church place in the way of someone seeking out an answer for the hurt and pain and confusion in life? How can someone who is looking for purpose, a place to belong, be encouraged to find God at church when the people leading those churches are beating it to death instead of leading it out into a hurting and dying world?

Sometimes instead of the squeaky wheel getting fixed, it should just get replaced.