Critical Christianity

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for rebuking, rebuking, rebuking and rebuking all unrighteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly criticized for his every effort." 2 Timothy 3:16-17 MDT (Modern Day Translation)

Ok so maybe my translation is a bit facetious but if all you did was look around many Christian web sites, blogs, foyers, and broadcasts the above translation seems plausible. Now there's not much point of me adding to the hypocrisy by critiquing the critical Christians for the sake of critiquing. After all, the very term Christian basically means Christ-like. So if we're going to represent Christ our job bears some resemblance to a physician since Christ is the "Great Physician." Now imagine if you will a missionary who went to a far off land just to tell the natives of their countless shortcomings and give in depth analogies of all their sins. Then that same missionary packs up and moves on to another troubled spot to point out the troubles in that spot. Why, that's no missionary at all! And what if you visited a doctor who did nothing but diagnose all your symptoms and then send you off with no mention of a prescription or remedy? Why that's no Christian manifesto at all.

As it correctly reads:
2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." So let's see how this passage may work in application...

I've noticed lately that mega-churches have taken a beating by the Christian critics and that's no surprise. Considering how many of them seem to grab more ideas from secular corporations than from scripture. But more in-depth analogy of what's wrong doesn't necessarily bring us closer to the remedy. What simply needs to be re-stated about the Christian walk is that it is deeply dependant on our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Because none of us are an island unto ourselves and God created us as highly social beings dependent on nurturing, we should be looking for spiritual and emotional intimacy within our fellow local body of believers. Also, the responsibility of pastor and elders as shepherds is to be intimately acquainted with the growth of those in their flock. After all, the Good Shepherd has sheep that know his voice and He knows each of them by name so there we have a model for elders to aim for. When a church grows to such a number that the spiritual leaders can't keep track of everyone and people begin to "slip through the cracks" or "fade into the background" among the sea of faces... well, that's an indication a church may need to split, dividing itself.

Of course I'm just scratching the surface on a remedy to the over-stuffed church. At the foundation of it all needs to be sound Biblical doctrine with the teachings of Christ and Him crucified as the cornerstone and an emphasis on loving the Lord our God with all we are and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Further reading: A balanced review of the book "Why Join a Small Church?"