A lot of people these days don’t have much room in their heart for the church. They just don’t like church. Dan Kimball reminds us that they like Jesus okay, but they just can’t stand the church. There are days when I think I understand these folks. Sometimes the church shoots itself in the foot and becomes its own worst enemy. When that happens, it’s not a very good day.

My problem with this, though, is that this kind of thinking puts the individual ahead of Jesus and communicates that Jesus may be building a church somewhere, but the one in my town He certainly isn’t it. With this kind of thinking Jesus, therefore, must bow to our demands about what “the church” should be like. In our intellectual and spiritual brilliance we trump God and insist that church be done our way or we are out the door and off to greener pastures.

Granted, some local congregations may have baggage, a lot of baggage, but this does not release a Believer from loving what Jesus loves and living in light of the fact that God the Father, put all things in subjection under the feet of Jesus and gave Him as Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (See Eph. 1:22-23).

The revival the North American Church so desperately needs will not come while God’s people tell God what to do and how to do it. Instead of writing off fellow believers because they don’t give me what I need, Jesus tells me to plant the cross right down in the middle of my heart and right down in the middle of that congregation that is, in my opinion, missing the mark when it comes to being the church. Then, let the power flow, let Jesus be Lord, let our times be in God’s hand.

Gandhi suggested, in another context, that we should be the change we want to see. Instead of walking away from a perceived problem, maybe we ought to charge right into that problem and give Jesus His opportunity to resurrect that church by the power that raised Him from the dead.

I would go out of my way to be a part of that kind of church