The problem I see in churches today is the two camps are stuck on themselves.  Neither will budge, and neither sees the motes in their own eyes.

If you overemphasize one attribute of God and neglect another one that is in perfect harmony, you can create God in your own image.  God is love.  God is holy.  God hates sin.  Jesus loved us enough on the Cross and that is where the holiness of God meets the love of God.

Often today, churches push the love of God to such a degree that people can interpret that to mean we can live however we want and God won’t care.  The love of God is so pushed that people think God winks at sin, and there is no fear of God and no reason to repent.  The CCM movement has a large group that lived a double life as closet homosexuals.  Now however the love envelope is so open that many have come out, and stay out of the closet and perform in their CCM concerts just as before and anyone who speaks out against that is intolerant and judgmental.  In their eyes.  Not in Gods.

However, in the other camp where sin is still preached, it has opened it’s own can of worms.  They do not want to give false hope to sinners, but at least by their actions they can portray a “quit sinning and turn to Jesus” type of legalistic Christianity where only those that meet some sort of external criteria are truly saved.  They won’t allow homosexual “Christians” into the fold, and rightly so.  However, the mercy and love of God are often held back from a sinner at least after the gestation period where true change is unexpected.  Yet if this likely goat fails to act like every other sheep, their evangelism doesn’t know how to handle it so they run the goat off to the wilderness to die.  Or to be picked up by the mercy extenders in Camp 1.  And they love the goat so much that they are content to let him stay a goat.

I don’t want to be so vague no one has a clue what I mean.  Nor do I want to pick on any church or pastor.  I am writing because I am at a crux.  I don’t know where to begin when it comes to the mess the church in America is in right now.  Honestly, I believe the problem right now is both camps are too busy slinging mud and saying, “Thank God that I am not Church so-and-so” that no one thinks to look at themselves.  Jesus however, is not going after the heathen yelling at them to repent.   He is not looking at the church down the road.  He is urging and pleading for the church that is reading this to look in the mirror and examine itself.  And at the same time for everyone of that church to do the same.  Not just the attenders.  Not just the Sunday school teachers.  But the leaders as well.   From the Pastor down.

Why are we so afraid of that?  The so called unpardonable sin in today’s Baptist churches is to catch the dreaded “Critical Spirit”.  It is treated like Ebola.  If you somehow captured the horrible disease (and it couldn’t come from one’s own church.  it must have been from those folks at the church down the road) you must be quarantined and no one can come in contact with you for 90 days.  It doesn’t matter the Bible tells you to search the scriptures.  You are not supposed to search the scriptures and find the church is in error.

My challenge to that is according to who?  If the Bible commands us to beware of wolves, how can we do that if we don’t judge?  Why are we aloud to speak against Pastor Joel Olsteen from the pulpit if you are in Camp B, but you can’t speak against Pastor Camp B if you are in Camp B?

To me if you pull up to a house and see the house is on fire and see weeds out in the garden, you don’t pull the weeds while the fire is blazing.  You tackle the biggest challenge first.  If the fire is out, then you can address the more minor things.  I think Joel is a minor thing when you have a church where 2 Sunday school teachers from the same church can’t even be in harmony in major doctrinal points.

I think Camp A says everything is fine, come have a good time.  They allow everything the world allows.  I am generalizing, but CCM is a great example of that.  It is have the cake and eat it too.  Have the bread of life and the junk food of the world.  Enjoy to your hearts content.  And they make it in your face and no one better try to ruin their good time.

Camp B has a huge laundry list of “thou shalt nots.”  It can be as extensive as the Pharisees and they don’t lift one finger to help lift the burdens they self imposed.  The big problem I have with Camp B is the list isn’t all inclusive and certain sins are allowed and certain sins are not.  As long as your “gods” are not on the forbidden list, enjoy to your hearts content.  And they make it in your face and no one better ruin their good time.  Especially if one sees the hypocrisy.

For example, going to movie theaters is bad.  Yet it is ok to rent movies.  Going to Darien Lake is bad.  Going to a hockey game is good.  Getting drunk is bad.  Getting high is bad.  Coffee junkies are fine.  Twinkie junkies are great.  Coke addicts are acceptable and so are Pepsi ones.   The lottery is sin.  Bingo is sin.  Fornication is accepted as long as you eventually get married.   Homosexuality is bad.  Loving your enemies is good.  But you are allowed to hate homosexuals.  In fact if you are kind and loving to them and try to win them, you must go because you make the church too uncomfortable.

Every church tweaks and twists their list of what is spiritual.  What I don’t see is honest God given convictions. If God gave them, you won’t look down at someone who doesn’t have the same  ones you do.  If God gave them, you won’t be threatened by someone or some church with stronger convictions than you.

Camp A is a mess.  Camp B is a mess.   The question is will either one look within and fix itself?  Or is it time to start Camp C?