A church needs to be open to ALL, it needs to put love and kindness at the top of of its goals. Judgemenatlism is something that should not be at the top of its goals. The church needs the Holy Spirit. We have been blessed to find such a place and while its huge with lots of chairs there have been times it is very hard to find a place to sit. So Jesus was and still is right when he said build a and they will come.

People come to this church in droves. The church does, of course, have to pass the offering basket but I have heard the ministers say if you are strapped don't give. It's ok. And he has said take care of family first then church. They host food drives twice a month and have clothes for people. They direct people who need special help, homeless, addicted to where they can be helped. I believe it was 60,000 they sent to Haiti along with missionaries and a four wheel drive vehicle.

My daughter started calling herself a Christ follower to separate herself from some of the injustices and hurts done by "Christians." People ARE rejecting God for the reasons you mention. If you think about it where would Satan like to be a church would be jackpot. I now too call myself a christ follower as my daughter does. It has helped me when talking with people who are fed up with what they perceive as "fake" Christians or as you described it Christians misrepresenting our God/

In trying to attract and keep members, the meaning of scripture is sometimes, or maybe even often, twisted by pastors and lay leaders and then blindly accepted in order to make people feel good or better about their words and actions. How can people learn about forgiveness and repentence, perseverence and steadfastness if there's no need for it since they don't feel they've done anything wrong??? The Holy Spirit prompts people to feel convicted about doing what God wants and not doing what God doesn't want. If pastors and lay leaders are undermining that, how is the Church going to be an instrument to help fulfill God's perfect plan and will? My family and I left our church for that reason, and are very concerned about getting involved again somewhere else. We love our Lord and trust in Him, but we don't trust those who claim to be doing His will right now.

I agree with bandmom, that some of the churches are attracting people and money by only teaching the positive sounding scriptures, and not the ones about sin, punishment, consequences. In the Catholic Church, they go through the entire Bible (almost) in 3 years of readings, including weekdays. The priest is supposed to have his homily on the scriptures of that day. That at least helps them stay on course, and not just pick and choose their favorite verses, and totally ignore the fact that we're each called to carry our cross.

It's true that there are hypocrites in churches, probably in every church. People are self-deluded sometimes.
It's still the best place for sinners to go to try and find others who are trying to live a Christ-like life. I've been disappointed in some of the priests, too. I've finally decided to try to live by the principles of my faith, and not judge those principles on how poorly some others may be following them. I'm running the good race, and if no one else is racing, ok, but I'm still running mine.

I think you should remember that when you condemn the church, you are part of the church and therefore part of the problem. I think the issue is that there are many people who have said a sinner's prayer but do not truly walk with God. That means God is not changing them and they seem the same or worse than those outside the church.

The modern "feel good" gospel has been preached for so long, that many pastors and leaders do not understand repentance. When we repent, we turn away from sin and towards Christ. And it is not to feel good or to get happiness or anything else. It is because we are sinners. There seem to be many people for whom the church is just a social club, and the "get out of hell free" card is the admission price.

Except Jesus paid the price for our souls. And for that price, he demands everything from us. If we do not deny ourselves daily and take up our cross and follow him. (Luke 9:23-24). So my take is that if many are not following Christ, with all their hearts souls and mind, are they truly Christians?

I think we need discipleship. Too many today are choked out by the thorns, or spring up with gladness and then die on shallow soil. (Mark 4:3-20) Jesus used that parable because he knew it would happen in the church. But my thought is that God is in control, and those who are chaff will be separated out, and the true Christians will be those who are with the Lord.

"31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”" Matt 24:31-46.

How often have you heard a sermon preached on that passage? I know we will be answerable one of these days, and there will be many surprises.

Angela, your post is so helpful. I agree I'm part of the problem, I'm just not sure how to handle it. I agree discipleship is key, and I think in our last church, works righteousness was confused with discipleship, so true discipleshup fell by the wayside. I also think in an effort to be accepting, tolerant, cooperative and accepted, we compromised some of our beliefs and values because they were seen as too fundamentalist. I love the Matt 24 excerpt you quoted--I've never heard a sermon on it! Crystal Lewis does a great song about it called People Get Ready. I have to be careful where we end up and get involved the next time we choose a church--I want to make sure we're praying enough about it and I want it to be where God wants us, but I have to be careful to guard my mind and heart too, or ask Him to do that, so we don't end up in a similar situation. I know I need to do more bible study and practice with trusting in God with the opportunities that He presents to me in everyday life. I need to find more discipleship minded people to associate with too. It's been difficult for a variety of reasons, but now that we should soon be entering a period of more effective healing, I'm getting more optimistic that I can do this.

I understand how you feel. I am changing churches, but not for the same reasons as you. But discipleship has been totally neglected and I realize how burned out I have been in my church. I think I have found a new church, and I already have good friends there. The sermon was awesome, but more important, I had a chance to see the pastor in action. I saw some servant leadership that impressed me more than all the good sermons or right words in the world.

I pray you will be able to find the right church. It is so hard to find the middle between the extremes of liberalism and ultraconservativism. I think it may be one of the biggest issues the church is facing.