Sometimes there are those topics that you really want to discuss, but that you avoid for whatever reason. This is a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for a while, now, but haven’t because I couldn’t come up with just the right words.

Then I found a link to an interesting entry at Michael’s journal, “Almost Abel” on MethodX.

Am I sick of church?

Yes and no.

It may shock people to hear a Christian say he’s sick of church. I imagine that there are some people who are every much as Christian as I am, and every much as devoted to God as I am if not moreso, who feel exactly the same way.

Michael writes:

I’ve been thinking about how many people seem to have been hurt by churches (even though many are well meaning). I’ve also been thinking that there are probably a large number of people who have been hurt but don’t know what to do with that hurt. Some people leave the church. Some people leave GOD.

I’ve never considered leaving God, because a long time ago, it was revealed to me in a personal way that defies any reasonable description that God exists. To explain how I know would be like explaining how I know that the sky is blue; I know it because I experience it.

But the church itself is a different matter. While it is God’s house, and while its purpose is to allow believers to come together to worship God, the church isn’t run by God. It’s run by men. And therefore, the church cannot be perfect. Even the preacher, who is supposed to be the messenger of God, isn’t always perfect.

Different people have their own, unique reasons for feeling the way I do. There was a time I would feel bad because I didn’t fall into the “cliques” that invariably form within a church. We’re all in God’s clique, of course, but sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that. Not that being part of a social group is the main reason to go to church, but at the same time, fellowship is one of the main reasons to go to church: you can worship God in the privacy of your own home. If you go to church to fellowship with others and you feel excluded, why would you want to go back?

I once visited a non-denominational church where people who didn’t really fall into any specific category or fit under any single label joined each other to worship together. And the sad thing is, I received a warmer welcome here than at any other church I’ve visited since I moved to Virginia. That should sting regular church-goers. It made me do a lot of thinking about how I greet new people at church. Do I come off as cold as some others?

I’ve been part of churches that contained what I generously refer to as “over-eager” members who are a little too much into other people’s personal business in an apparent attempt to make sure those folks are worthy of inclusion. In their mind, it may be that they’re trying to keep their peers accountable, but in reality, they’re being busybodies and that can turn people off quickly.

Most churches are plagued by the “holier than thou” types who actually try to keep count of how much others attend. I don’t attend church regularly, but I challenge anyone who is inside a church building during every service to prove that my belief in God isn’t just as strong as their own.

The sad part is, if we’re not supposed to judge others, I would think that the last people we’d try to be judging is fellow believers!

The church as a political entity is always a problem for some. I could do a separate post on this subject. There was a time when being associated with a church didn’t automatically mean association with any single political party or assumptions of one’s own political views. Separation of Church and State is the popular phrase that people like to throw around, when, in fact, there was never an intent to keep religion on the back burner. Our founding fathers simply wanted to be able to live in a country where they weren’t forced to belong to (and more importantly, to financially support) a church they didn’t want to be part of. A survey I read indicated that most of the people polled wanted leaders who were religious in some way. I think the distinction is that they didn’t necessarily want those religious views to get in the way of running the country and providing for the people.

As with all things, it’s the extremists, those who are so close-minded that they can’t even bring themselves to realize that an alternative viewpoint can reasonably exist, that damages what the majority of people hope to achieve. But churches get the blame for this since a lot of the extremists tend to wave their church attendance — and the “holiness” they think it affords them — as a flag for all to see.

My biggest turn-off at the moment is the blatant business mentality. There’s no question that churches are a business. They take in money, they have budgets, they hire employees and pay salaries. To be effectively run, a church must operate as though it were a business to make sure it can cover its debt. But I have been in a church where the members who contribute more — or who at least think they do — have begun considering themselves to be the bosses of the church. If an idea doesn’t meet their approval, whether it seems to be consistent with reaching out to the community, it doesn’t happen. When they put behind-the-scenes politics as a priority, instead of serving God, I have a problem with that. I’ve heard of pastors — good pastors — run off solely because some of those “high-paying” members didn’t feel like the donations were coming in quickly enough. If the consideration of a pastor’s worth to a church is measured solely in the collection plates rather than his ability to spread God’s word, I’m not sure that’s a church I want to belong to.

I’m curious about your feelings on church. Do you ever get sick of church? What bothers you the most about organized religion?

Please leave “sick of church”-related comments at Michael’s blog as well. I think this is an important discussion for people who go to church and those who have felt turned away.