One of my convictions when it comes to marriage is to never speak negatively about your spouse in public. This conviction came about from observation- almost every Sunday I will hear someone bad-talking their husband or wife. It’s one thing to be open for the sake of getting help, but it’s a whole other to just gossip and gripe.
We treat Christ’s bride the same, sadly. And I am guilty of this myself. I just read this fro the first chapter of Transformational Church bt Thom Rainer and Ed Setzer and I need to camp out on it for a while:
Right now it is en vogue to look down on the church. If you take a look at certain sections of the blog and book worlds, or just peruse the Christian Twittersphere, you can find all kinds of people taking all kinds of shots at the Bride of Christ. And they’re doing it for all kinds of reasons. Many are disillusioned with the church of their upbringing. Some are discouraged by decline or scandals. A younger generation is frustrated with the church’s apparent apathy about social justice causes. Some are upset that the church won’t get more modernized; some are upset because the church has lost it’s ancient ways. There are criticisms abounding of emerging churches, seeker churches, missional churches, traditional churches, Boomer churches, multi-site churches, old churches, new churhes, and the list goes on. Sometimes it seems there are as many complaints as ther are Christians, and some of these complaints are well meaning.
But… If you can’t do, teach. And if you can’t do or teach, become a critic.
The talking bad about your spouse thing drives me nuts. They are supposed to literally be "one" with you.
As to your point, excellent. I actually, had this discussion with someone at work the other day regarding the church.
I agree with you about bashing the church in public – but there has to be dialog somehow… tough call.
@herb, thanks for stopping by. I do think there needs to be a healthy dialogue, but I can be too quick on the trigger to be critical. That's why I'm reading this book- to hopefully gain some insight, but more importantly to help my heart.