There is a tendency to confuse God and the church. For the non-believer, this provides an opportunity to reject God based on the imperfections in His church. A believer may turn away from God having been hurt by His human church.
God is good. All the time. The church is not always good. The church, albeit the body of Christ, is still made up of human beings – redeemed to be sure, but still sinners. As a preacher from New Orleans puts it, “Sinners gonna sin; you gotta expect that.”
How does this play out in our lives? We must put our faith in God. We should testify how God has saved us and is sanctifying us. We often err in putting faith in man or it believing that our goal as Christians is to get the unbeliever into church. Our goal is to lift up Christ and have Him draw men unto Him.
This does not diminish the importance of the church and our need, as Christians, to be a part of it. It is in and through the Church that we live out our call to “make disciples.” It is where we love so that all may know we are His disciples.
As Christians our relationship with Him comes first. Our church life is a blessed outpouring of that relationship.
On Sunday night at Amana we will be discussing this issue of separation of God and Church. Come and contribute. We will all be blessed.
Nick
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The church is not always good.
The church, albeit the body of Christ, is still made up of human beings—redeemed to be sure, but still sinners. This, perhaps, is where Yancey’s distinction between the church and the God of the church comes in.
As a preacher from New Orleans puts it, “Sinners gonna sin; you gotta expect th
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