"Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly"
Teancum Singh used to say that as it was in the days of Jonah, so shall it be in the last days. The Lord's servants may make mistakes from time to time, which may lead to some unexpected anguish, but that doesn't mean the Lord isn't always guiding the church.
You don't need to leave the church if you learn that a leader has done something you think is wrong. Even if it is wrong, you can always pray out of the fish's belly and the Lord will sustain you and see to it that things are worked out for the church as a whole in his due time.
As long as you can believe that God is with us, there is good reason to stay. Spiritual experience should trump disappointment with history or policy.
Which also means that history and policy can't make up for spiritual experience.
I like to think of the Gospel as true, not necessarily the "church." the "church" is made up of people who are fallible and corrupted and fallen. it's only the Gospel that has been revealed by the anointed servants of the Lord that is infallible, incorruptible and exalted.
ReplyDeleteI used to feel about the same way, but then I started to get a lot more respect for the church. After all, it's in the community of the people that the truths live, right? And we do a pretty good job. We serve willingly. Men and women with day jobs and families and tons to worry about receive guidance about where to call us, how to minister to us. Furniture gets moved. So do metaphorical mountains.
ReplyDeleteSix million people or so show up to one unified church organization on any given Sunday and do God's work. For the most part, they seem to like each other in the process.
Part of the gospel is to have a church; God's hand in the church is part of what helps me trust the gospel.
So yeah, people can screw up. But I think it's important to remember not just that the gospel is true, but the church those people are part of is an important part of God's work.
There's an essay on this topic by Eugene England, actually titled "The Church is as True as the Gospel".
ReplyDeleteThe Gospel may be exalted, but the Church is exalting.