Shaken to the Core

I have the privilege of answering emails from people who have written into Walk in the Word or Harvest Bible Chapel.  Many of them are theological questions or questions about the Bible, but many are regarding spiritual counsel for personal problems.  As I read email after email, my heart was crushed.  I've always known that people were hurting.  Let's face it, life is hard and we are sinners.  That combination leads to major issues.  But what is truly eye opening is the level of hurt and confusion caused by the church.

As I sat reading these emails and listening to how so how so many churches have disregarded the Word of God, I felt sick to my stomach.  There are so many churches that are allowing flagrant sin to continue, calling guilty parties innocent and innocent parties judgmental.  Churches that are teaching false doctrine and propagating the lies of Satan as if they were God's truth.  People with deep hurts and profound wounds, unable to turn to their local church body because they are not equipped to deal with such problems.  People who do not know the gospel yet are told that they are followers of Christ.  What has happened?  

The church is supposed to be the pillar and buttress of truth (1 Tim. 3:15).  The church is supposed to be the place where believers come to be fed and nourished by God's Word, equipped for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12).  The church is the place where we bear one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2).  Yet, as these letters revealed, many churches around the country are doing more damage than they are good. Confused believers are looking for answers to some of the most basic and fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, and unfortunately it isn't the world that is throwing them into this state of confusion... it's the church. 

I'm not writing this to harp on the church.  In fact, there are plenty of great churches that are preaching the Word, making disciples, and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.  I write this because it reinforced in me the desire to be a church that leads people in truth.  My heart goes out to people who do not have a church that is able to give them what they so desperately need... the truth of God's Word.  I want to be a church that speaks the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) and that cares for and meets the needs of people, especially those in the body of Christ (Gal. 6:10).  I want to be a church where people know they are getting the biblical answers to life's questions.  I want to be a church that builds a foundation of biblical doctrine into the lives of each and every person that will be the platform leading to true and lasting change.  It is this foundation that will stand when everything else crumbles.  

There are so many people hurting.  They are in desperate need of the church to step up and be what God has called her to be.  That is what we will strive for, that is what we will be, so that His name will be magnified and all will know that Christ is the answer.  He alone offers the words of life (John 6:68).  

Grace and Peace,

Ian