So, the Institutional Church Does Not Live Up to Your Expectation?

So what does? And, why should the church be any different than any other institution? A lot of folk are leaving the institutional church currently. As a matter a fact a lot of people are angry at the church. They may get angry at the rigidity of some churches, or the looseness of others. A lot just see the church as irrelevant. Some go to church occasionally and find it liturgy not to their liking. There are lots of choices between churches and there is the choice just not to go. A part of that is folk just don’t trust churches and their leadership very much anymore. They see the cover-ups of church scandals. They may get angry and authoritarian attitudes of clergy. And many just don’t find they provide answers to the issues they are facing today.

But the same can be said of government, corporations, non-profits and the like. Athletic heroes of the past have proved to have feet of clay and we don’t trust those over paid gamesters or their owners either. Folk just to put a lot of trust in institutions anymore.

We live in a society that does not promote trust. The media primarily reports bad news giving us a distorted view of ourselves. It is difficult to see acts of grace because they are not popular viewing or reporting.

People run all churches; corporations, athletic organizations, government and all people fall short of somebodies expectations.

In years past we seemed to understand and expect that more than we do now. We lived in smaller communities and it is easier to accept the foibles and shortcomings of family and neighbors than it is folk who are farther away from us.

We also have more choices available to us today than every before. We have more choices of jobs, more choices of religions, more choices of sporting events, more choices of food. At Starbucks there are 82,000 choices of coffee to drink.

We get tired of making choices on a constant basis and sometimes we choose not to choose and we choose not to trust; it’s just easier that way.

Wake up and smell the coffee, all 82,000 of them and perhaps lower unrealistic expectations and concentrate on more important decisions. Thus is the opinion of this one who is 25,699 days old or 845 months. Lots of choices have been made; most of them relatively unimportant.

Despite all this lack of trust and negativity I remain relatively optimistic. People are people and just act basically they way they always have. And I believe God is God and is as loving and protective as God has always been and is as close as ever if you have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Some data:

Of the 74% claiming religious affiliation 40% claim they attend church regularly; 20% actually do.