The Church and All Its Screw Ups

I just finished listening to a sermon by Steve Nicholson given in 2007 at The Cause Conference hosted by the Duluth Vineyard (most of you probably could care less where the sermon was given, but I figured I better reference these things… especially since I like knowing those details when I read a post). Undecided

Anyway… Nicholson (who is a Vineyard pastor and church planter) tells a story of when he was invited to join the Vineyard National Board with John Wimber in the 1980’s. After his first board meeting, he left in a state of confusion and dismay – all those folks whom he had seen on stage preaching to hundreds and thousands of people, who where used by God in amazing way – well, they were backbiting each other and basically, acting like little kids. Some of them even had home churches that hated their guts!

After a while Steve went to Wimber and asked him how to keep from being depressed in the midst of all this. Wimber told him to focus on the good apples…

In a lot of ways Nicholson’s story mirrors my own story. When you first join a church, you sit back and watch the leaders with a sense of awe. You see God moving through the leaders and you’re like – “wow! What would it be to work with these guys?”[@more@]Then you move from the church pews to the office halls and everything changes. You find out that people are human and everyone has warts.

At this point, you some choices:

  • you can go back to the pews and quietly go about your business,
  • or you could quite the church and go somewhere else,
  • or you can bend a bit and allow God’s grace and love to flow through you.

Focus on the good apples. Every church – shoot, every small group, movement, company, family or anywhere with two or more people – has good and bad apples. The trick is not agreeing with everything everyone says – it’s trusting God and allowing Him to keep you focused on what He is doing in the midst of our humanness.

Church is good. It is the bride of Christ. Let us jump in and get our hands dirty.