Featured Blog: The PROBLEM with Churches and Church People

I'm a pastor and have spent most of my life in churches. I grew up in a Christian family where weekly church attendance was a "must".

Now as a pastor I interact with, read about and observe many non-church people and their comments about the church and church people. In much of our society the church and Christian thought has been relegated to the sidelines, marginalized. Church and Christians get viewed as the conservatives, the haters, the people who want to diminish freedom.

The media portrays the church as out of date, irrelevant and politically arrogant. Of course, I also hear that church people are hypocrites and judgmental. And so I got to wondering, why is this so?

Why has something that was foundational to the beginning of America and something that has a track record of radically transforming lives and families for good, become something so hated in some circles and marginalized in others?

While I don't plan to answer it all in a short, simple blog post -- allow me to share one big problem I see, and a potential remedy. I think that churches and church people have rightly received the reputation of not always living what we say/ teach. "Religion," as many refer to it has reduced being a follower of God/ Christian to an hour of church once a week or more realistically, a church service every Christmas and Easter and maybe a handful of other times through the year.

It takes little, it seems, in today's culture to call oneself a "Christian" and maybe that is part of the issue? Maybe there is a large population of people who call themselves "christian" but truly are "sporadic attenders of a religious event" (which I agree is a more difficult term to say and not altogether flattering). The on-looking world then sees this population and realizes they aren't much different than them and in some cases are worse and therefore write off "Christianity".

Maybe I'm being a little harsh here -- so let me focus more on where we spend time as a church (Grace Church Roseville). We like to talk about what we're FOR not really what we're AGAINST. You see the Church universally/generally has become more known for boycotts, picketing and what we're against rather than the powerful, freedom-giving, life-giving message of the Bible! And one of the things I love most about the Bible is how it is FULL of direction on how to live, not just what to believe!

Starting on Sunday, Oct. 21, here at Grace, we're doing a series called "Everyday Sunday" -- we're going to work our way through one book in the Bible called "James". James was the half-brother of Jesus and lays out simply, yet powerfully, the life we are called and created to live!

So for seven weeks we're going to examine what it might look like to take "Sunday-faith" and live it out Monday through Saturday. We are all in process and far from doing it perfectly, but we're a church serious about living out our faith everyday. While one church can't turn the tide on an entire country's opinions and mindset--we need to start somewhere, right?

If you struggle with connecting faith to the everyday, I would invite you to join us in this journey at Grace Church Roseville. If you're skeptical about the church or faith at all, I invite you too, to join us and see what the Bible actually says about the life we're called to live.

Grace is open to everyone -- while we are non-denominational, I am continually amazed how many Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists etc have found a great home here at Grace!

Lest you think I share all this from a position of having it altogether, I too am imperfect, in process and learning a ton every week. So, you're personally invited to connect with God along with us any Sunday at 9 or 10:45 a.m. at Grace Church Roseville -- at the corner of Hamline & B2 (less than a mile from both Rosedale Mall and Roseville Library)