I love religion and Jesus

  While I'm sure millions have already chimed in, many more wiser than I, I can't help but offer my opinion on the craze surrounding "Why I hate religion, but love Jesus."


  I get it.  I understand the criticism, and some of it is spot on.  Prophetic speech is always difficult for the target to hear, and as a member and employee of the institutional church this criticism isn't any easier to hear.  Some of it rings true--the church is not always the church Christ has called it to be.  Organized religion has not always brought glory to God.  I have to imagine we have done things that would make God weep, and we have been responsible for great sorrows.

  But I don't believe for an instant that Christ came to abolish religion.  I believe that Christ came to reform religion, to transform the hearts of the religious leaders of the day so that the entire world might live in constant worship before the throne of God Almighty.  I think that's why Christ spent so much time with the Pharisees--in the hopes that they might see the Truth.

  I don't believe that Christ came to destroy religion because I believe that the same God who had Solomon build a temple, the same God who spent lots of time and intricate details spelling out exactly how the Ark of the Covenant should be built, also came as Jesus Christ, as a Savior who gathered people together, who preached in synagogues, who spent time in the Temple, who told Peter that he was the rock upon whom he would build his church.  Christ has promised to gather all His children to himself, and when we gather as a church, we practice this gathering, lifting our hearts to the Lord.

  When we leave our places of worship, our structures that often consume too much of our resources, we should leave to serve.  In this aspect, the church has fallen short.  But just as the church is often busy failing people like this poet, the church is often just as busy glorifying God through their service to others.  It doesn't get nearly as many headlines as a good scandal, but the church is busy joining with God's mission in the world, serving the poor and needy.

  I will not stand before anyone as a perfect man or preacher.  I will not pretend that I do not have my own flaws, and I will not lift up New Hope as the perfect church.  We're delightfully imperfect.

  But Christ didn't spend his time on earth calling perfect people to himself.  He didn't avoid bringing Peter to the Transfiguration because he was afraid Peter might say something stupid--he brought him along in the hopes that this moment might transform him.

  In the same manner, the church today continues to gather and hear the stories, pray for the Spirit's presence and leading, in the hope that we, too, might be transformed, and that we might go forth to share this with others.  We will fail, and we will disappoint others.  Only Christ was perfect, and we point to Him as our only hope.  Christ warned against putting ultimate hope in anything other than God, and we preach that at New Hope.

  I pray that those whom religion has failed are able to see through our shortcomings and see the love of Christ at work in us, and that the church is humble enough to admit our faults but always proclaim the love and grace of Christ in all we do.