angry about grace?

Before I begin, let me say that I believe in grace. I believe I am a saved sinner, and in previous posts about living among missionaries here in Uganda, I have been amazed at how God uses broken people (myself included) to build His kingdom.

But this beautiful gift of grace is being used to cloak diseases eating away at the church. Young people, especially in the North American church, are rooted only in bumper sticker theology and a warped view of grace that has reduced it to something cheap and meaningless.

This past year alone I have seen too many promiscuous, selfish, and in some cases abusive young men put on church stages, given a guitar, a microphone, or sometimes a salary. Maybe it's because I'm a woman that, in my experience, most of these people have been men. As a woman, I'm friends with other women. I know who these guys are. I've cried with and for the girls who lost their virginity to them and then have been treated as damaged goods, the girls who were lied to, shoved aside, or not believed by the church.

I believe that people, through the power of Christ, can change. But I see a difference between someone who lived in sin before converting, and someone who was able to master hypocrisy and wear a mask the whole time. I see a difference between someone who is broken and remorseful and someone who has never flinched with shame. I see a difference between someone who is wanting to be mentored and taught and someone who thinks that, after two minutes of living a Christian walk, they are qualified to be lifted up as a leader for others.

Their mantra is always the same: grace. Amazing grace. Where sin abounds, grace is more.

Unfortunately, the people they hurt aren't around to hear their message. In their seeming quest to test the limits of grace, these guys have driven so many people far from it. Can you blame these girls for leaving the church, for not being able to stomach the stench of our hypocrisy? The truth is they are long gone.

As a church, we should forgive these guys. Anyone should be welcome through our doors. And, even for those who aren't remorseful, the reality is that there will always be hypocrites in every denomination.

However, the leaders in the church should be seasoned with wisdom and should be intent on guarding our stages. Only God can fully purify His church, but I think we can do a better job of training church leaders and keeping them accountable. Instead, I find that we are easily impressed by things that, according to the Bible, don't really impress God at all.

Taking a Scripture verse out of context, putting it in pretty font, and getting it tattooed on your arm doesn't mean a thing has changed in your heart. As a church, are we rewarding sordid testimonies or faithfulness and integrity? Do we equate forgiveness with trust? Are we more interested in someone's family name, than in the stamp of the Holy Spirit on their daily lives? Does damage to the name of Christ and hurt to members of the audience take second place to how well someone can play an instrument, or sing that Christmas solo?

I have seen so many people rise to places of leadership based on charisma and connections. Isn't that the world's way of doing things? Isn't the Kingdom supposed to work differently?

I realize that this rant paints me as a judgmental ogre. People in the church are pretty free to rant about homosexuals and Muslims, but the minute people call out hypocrisy we plug our ears and repeat messages of unity in the church and misquoted Scripture about judging.

I'll be honest, I am not perfect. Lately I've been trying to read my Bible more regularly, as I realized it was sitting unopened for far too long. And as I read, I realize -- this is scary stuff! No, I'm not talking about Old Testament angry prophets -- I'm talking the New Testament. The new covenant. The one that's supposed to get us all off scot-free.

Matthew 7: 18-20 (JESUS talking! What? I thought He only said nice things?!) "A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions."

And onto verse 21-23, even scarier still ... "Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, 'Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.' But I will reply, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws."

I don't fully understand all of this, but it puts the fear of God straight back into me! Over and over again Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes, but lost his mind when people within the church were hypocritical or tried to turn the church into a power-playing, money-making machine.

And then there's Acts. The Early Church, the Holy Spirit, the new covenant, right? What I'm reading as I read through Acts is that sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and cheating tax collectors were welcome to join the church and be saved by grace. But Ananias and Sapphira, members of the church who tainted it by lying? They dropped dead. Dead. Killed. For lying!

I feel like Christians often get this backwards. God isn't disgusted with your godless neighbours, or the teenage unwed mother you saw at the grocery store. He came to save the world, not condemn it. But, I'm going to guess, He's a lot more disgusted by our general acceptance of a lukewarm, mediocre standard within the church.

Once we put on the name of Christ, let us learn to live in a way that honours it. Let us take up the power of the Holy Spirit, to let Him make us righteous. Let's be honest about our struggles and mistakes and hold each other accountable. Let's be transparent, let's believe victims. Let's ask for wisdom, that even optics wouldn't soil the name of Christ. And, sometimes, the damage is done, so let's get on our knees and ask for forgiveness.


On a similar note ... check out Ann Voskamp's letter to her son after a rape case in Ohio. It's an amazing challenge to protect the vulnerable, to have courage to speak the truth, to pursue holiness and to reject the shrugging, "Boys will be boys" that so often permeates the church.