What Do People Think of the Church

In the class I teach on Sunday mornings, we learned that there are six objections that people have about the church today. What is so amazing about these is that people inside the church as well as outside the church hold the same views.

Let me list them:

1. Hypocritical (Psalm 26:4; 2 Peter 2:1-3)
   
2. Too focused on getting converts
3. Anti-homosexual (1 Corinthians 13)
   
4. Sheltered and Boring (Matthew 9:12, 13)
   
5. Too Political (1 Timothy 2:1-3)
   
6. Judgmental (Matthew 7:1-6)

As you noticed, I only put a few scripture references by these. I did that because some of the scriptures can be applied to more than one area.

So how do you respond? Then ask yourself, how should I really respond?

We cannot present a fantasy church that whitewashes the gospel to make everyone feel good about themselves, and we cannot continue to overly exert the idea of hell.

We have to find the medium that allows God to use us as he sees fit. It other words, we need to become more like Jesus. Maybe we need to spend more time in the gospels learning how Jesus approached the sinner and how he spoke to them. And then look at how Jesus approached the church and spoke to them.

How would Jesus speak to the church today? What would He have to overturn?