the imperfect

Old preacher joke (many of which I've been guilty through the years):

"If you find the perfect church, don't join it! The moment you do, it will no longer be perfect!"

Sounds funny, somewhat insulting, but very truthful. Except that we'll never find that perfect church anyway, so the point is moot. But still many of us that have been Christians for many years have sought to find that "perfect church." You know, the one that has the best praise and worship. Not too loud, not too long, and definitely not too much talking during the music set. A pastor that is young, hip, mature, sensible, has a perfect family, drives a new car and has the best clothes...and doesn't take a salary! (another bad pastor joke!)

But finding a church that is perfect is like breaking a glass and trying to put all the pieces back together again and make it look as if it was never broken. It can't be done, because we all bring our brokenness to the table. But that is what it's supposed to look like. Never once do we see things be perfect in the New Testament church either. There were problems from the get-go!

Still, in spite of these obvious flaws, the church still turned the world upside-down. 2,000 years later, we're still involved in this incredible community we call "church."

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Isaiah 42:3 -

"A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;"

The Message Bible renders it this way:

"He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won't disregard the small and insignificant, but he'll steadily and firmly set things right."

Have you ever felt like the bruised reed or the burnt out wick? Know that today God promises he won't let you break or be "snuffed out," but that he will steadily and firmly set things right.

Church can have its share of heartache. And mostly, it because it's made up of us imperfect people. I hope that we can learn to own this fact, own our imperfection and begin to move beyond it.

If we can accept ourselves as we are, then maybe we can learn how to accept others as they are. Jesus said that we're to love one another as we love ourselves. Maybe the problem is that we haven't learned to love ourselves first. Maybe that's what is holding us back.

Love is what holds a community together, which is what a local expression of the Church is-a community of people who love one another and strive to live this journey of life for Christ together. And love though it accepts you where you are, it nudges you, pushes you, stretches you to become better than you are. It loves you enough to take you further than you ever believed you could go and dream and believe and live.

That's the kind of imperfect church I could live with. How about we make an imperfect church together?