The Blessed Imperfectness of Church

The husband and I attend a great church across town, full of delightful characters. We have many of the elderly in wheelchairs and walkers, we have a whole Sunday School class made up of those who are mentally challenged, who really love to worship Jesus and talk about him. We have plumbers and school principals, babies and stay-at-home moms. Career women and retired missionaries, and everything in between.

I've really never been a fan of southern gospel music, but when they play and sing it at this church, which they often do, I don't mind so much. I sense that they are really, sincerely, worshipping God, and it makes me sing louder. (Ask the husband, I do sing plenty loud in church.)

One of the things I hate in churches is fakeness and hypocrisy. Sorry, that's two things. And I happen to believe God hates them, too. And being raised as a Baptist pastor's daughter, I have an uncanny nose for such things. Insincerity stinks, and I can smell it a mile away. That's another reason I like our church.

Now, I'm not saying it's a perfect church--I'll admit it's quite imperfect. We are all imperfect creatures, after all, always in need of God's grace. But there's a freedom at the church that I really dig. 

I like that there are old people and young people at our church. I like the way people raise their hands often while they are worshipping God, young and old. I like the way they kneel at the altar up front to pray for needs, and the way they pray out loud, leaving nothing on the table. Pouring it all out to God. Especially my 73-year-old mentor, Doris. She's been praying practically her whole life, and she prays like God is listening and ready to respond; she prays boldly and often. It's a way of life for her, really.

And here's something that's pretty fantastic, too: when I go to prayer meeting on Wednesday night (which I never pictured myself doing, but I love), people come in who have messed their lives up royally but are turning back to God. And these people, of whom some are "the least of these" Jesus tells us to minister to, show signs of God's movement in their lives, and you remember how very real this relationship with Jesus is. And how it changes everything. And these people pray to Jesus very desperately, in a good way. And they know he is their only hope. And that is a very beautiful place to be.

This is why the church has a food pantry, and Angel Food Ministries, and a hispanic campus, and several outreaches throughout the year where they provide things that people in the community need. It's because Jesus loves everyone intensely, but he especially commanded us to serve the poor.

And there's something really cool about our church that's brand new for me, too. Our particular denomination ordains women, and we happen to have an amazing female pastor at our church. She heads up the evangelism ministry, while her husband serves as senior pastor, and together they make an amazing team. To say this is shocking to some of you would be an understatement. 

My own views on this issue have been evolving, first as I undertook a study of all of the New Testament women several years ago, and then as I've been noticing some things in Scripture for the first time that actually assume women were involved in prophesying in the early church. But don't get me started about Lydia and Phoebe, Nympha and Tabitha, Susanna and Joanna, Mary Magdalene, etc. And how about Deborah in the Old Testament? This is neither the time nor the place. :)

It's just freeing to see Pastor C., a woman using her giftings to their full potential, doing exactly what God has called her to do. And quite frankly, this is one of the reasons I am pursuing chaplaincy ministry, because I feel God's call on my life. It is not to make a point, except for this: Jesus loves me and those around me very intensely, wants to rescue us from our sin, and wants me to share the beauty of what that rescue means with others, so they can know him, too.

In summary, I'm experiencing church in a new and different way. But it's a good different. In chaplaincy ministry, it's amazing to see how chaplains of so many different denominations come together to share Christ. It's moving to see so many people who approach their worship and sometimes their faith differently, still hold the essentials of what Jesus has come to do for us dear. 

I am blessed by the imperfectness of church. And I hang on the shining moments when people who love Jesus love well in return. Even in the midst of a very precarious time in history, it gives me great hope for the future.