The Church Won't Be Able to Influence the World If Nobody Trusts It

I heard a story the other day that grabbed my heart.

There is a family in my church that is going through some hard times. The dad had gotten laid off from his job and the mom was having some complications from giving birth to their fourth child. They were in dire financial straits, and were going to have to move to a one-bedroom apartment in order to make ends meet. The couple was in a Bible study with a few of their close friends. On the day they were going to move, the whole group showed up to help them move. Only the didn’t move them to that single bedroom apartment.

They moved them into their new house.

One of the guys in that small group had a rental property. He gave the family that property. Not loaned it. Not let them use it. Turned over the deed. He bought them a house. Bought them a house.

There is something about generosity like that that cuts through all the religious crap. There’s just something indescribably good about that - about that kind of care and selflessness and most of all, love. Regardless of your faith or beliefs, regardless of whether you believe anything, you’re like, “You know what, that is a good thing.”

I say this because a lot of people look at Church, look at Christians and don’t say that. When I tell people I’m a part-time pastor at a Christian church, people look at me as if I just told them I wear my grandmother’s underwear for recreation. Sometimes there’s confusion in their faces. Often, fear and distrust. And let’s be honest, not all of that is unearned.

I’m a school teacher and the other day, on our in-service day, a bunch of my co-workers and I went out to lunch. We were sitting around and a co-worker said, “You know what: the institution of organized religion has been nothing but a destructive force in America.”

I was sorry to hear him say that. I think what he said is not true. I think it ignores a great deal of history, and is, I think, very dismissive. The Revolutionary War was supported and fanned into flame largely by New England preachers. The number of sermons given by pastors and ministers in support of ideas like freedom and liberty and self-sacrifice and self-rule, etc, were vast and were largely responsible, in some very important ways, for crystallizing this nation's ideas about itself and what it stands for. Same thing happened during Slavery, as abolitionists used the pulpit to decry that most wretched practice of human trafficking. And then later, during the Civil Rights Movement, pastors preached the necessity of brotherhood. Dr. King especially used his position as pastor to urge non-violence: to demand that no protestor give in to the seeds of bitterness or anger or violence. The church has always been an important pillar of support and contributor to American Civil Discourse.

Dismissing the church as being corrupt is like saying: “the American legal system has been nothing but a destructive force in American history.” There are certainly some black eyes that the Church and those who take her seriously must account for: Southern preachers promoting slavery or segregation, for example. But the American legal system has its own black eyes. The Dred Scott case for example, which said that black people are property, or Plessy v. Ferguson, which said separate but equal segregation is acceptable. The system righted itself, though, just as the church has had its internal critics always seeking to help her sail in the right direction.

And I think this is where we are now.

Just as in any other point in our history, there are tensions and forces pulling our nation. As a pastor, I think that I would be seriously misguided if I began to believe that the purpose of my institution is to ensure that a particular political party is championed. My allegiance is not to any party: I have loyalties that are far higher than any governmental system.

If this nation heads to a place where one party is seen as “The Party For People Who Believe in God” and another party is a place for people “Who Don’t Believe in God” then we are in a very dangerous setting.

The Church has always been, and must always be, co-belligerent. It must take active stands against any action that violates what is good and right, and must applaud any action that promotes those things.

For the Church is unique in her role. But the church can only really work in her role in this nation, in my community, or in any community, if she is believed and trusted. Just as the rule of law breaks down if there is not confidence in justice, or the role of the executive breaks down if there is distrust or corruption.

If I’m going to make the claim that Jesus teaches the best possible way to live, then the congregation I am a part of must be a place of such radical love and goodness that it’s undeniable.

I belong to a church where a guy sees his friend struggling, and he bought him a house. And my goal is that the next story of radical generosity will be a story about something I’ve done to help someone out. I want this not so that I can get praises, but so that people will begin to trust the church again.

And maybe, just maybe, trust God.