No Perfect Church

This is why I love The Vineyard! :) Outward Focused Thought by Dave Workman If in our churches we say “come as you are”, it's going to get messy. Really messy. I always find it interesting when someone gets mad about something at the Vineyard and tells me we should be more like the New Testament church, as if that was some idyllic time in Church history and the apostles were super-dudes. My answer is “Which New Testament church do you want to be like?—the Corinthians had guys having sex every which way you can, suing each other and getting drunk at church potlucks. People in the Thessalonian churches were quitting their jobs and sitting around waiting for Jesus to return. Folks in the Colossian church were worshipping angels and beating themselves to prove how holy they were. In Galatia they were turning into legalists and racists. So which New Testament church you want to be like?” Every church has issues to deal with. Pastors often have people come from other churches, and sometimes I hear things like “Wow! This is such a great church…this is everything I'm looking for!” I usually stop them right there and ask if they would like me to alphabetize all the stuff that's screwed up here and drives me crazy. There's no perfect church because there are no perfect Christians…that's why we need a perfect Savior. But one thing is clear: if you make it a goal to develop an outward-focused church, to serve those who don't yet know Jesus, it's eventually going to be messy, because people are…especially people in process. But I'd way rather have that than neat and tidy. For me, the goal is unity, not conformity.