I was talking with a pastor this week and we got onto the subject of the ineffectiveness of the church. I told him that from working with, in and around churches for the past seven years; I’ve lost my faith in religion (and the institutionalized church), but never in Jesus. From there, I continued the ideas from this conversation to others with my wife, co-workers and friends. And from those conversations we all agreed that something has definitely been lost. The church has:

lost compassion towards people in word and deed

lost touch with people on the the outside walls of the church

lost the reality that culture exists and matters (because it mattered to Jesus)

lost our love and mystery in pursuing God

lost our humility and the fact that we’re all sinners

lost our alien and nomadic nature

lost the journey in pursuit of the truth and being right

lost authenticity by refusing to be honest and broken and taking up the cloak of rhetoric

lost the here and now of the Gospel and traded it for the “was” and “will”

lost the grandness of following Christ and replaced it with a manageable life

Any to add? Any to argue?