If you criticize “the church,” you’re criticizing the bride of Christ
About a decade ago, there was a book, wildly popular in Christian circles, called Blue Like Jazz. The author was Donald Miller, and the book is a very raw and real account of his spiritual journey. In it he tells about an event his campus ministry put on during an event known for its wild partying. They set up a booth in the middle of campus, and wrote on it “Confess Your Sins.” However, when people would enter the booth, it would not be them giving a confession. The Christians, rather, would confess to all comers, both their own sins and the sins of other Christians — even things from the very distant past.
Now, they would also present the gospel when they did this, and it seemed to make a substantial impact on some people by his account. So I am not necessarily criticizing that specific event. But it is a notable example of a trend that’s gained some popularity within the last 10 or 20 years, particularly in my generation: bashing “the church” or “Christians” (of whom the church is comprised).
To hear some in my generation tell it, we are just now beginning to come to grips with the numerous evils “the church” or “Christians” are guilty of doing or having done. Some people might not use those exact terms, but the idea behind it all is that we Christians have some collective guilt to share, not only for our own sins, but for the sins of televangelists and Republicans and popes and crusaders.
Now, of course, Christians have done and continue to do bad things. We all do. Throughout history Christians and people claiming to be Christians have done bad things. But for Christians to talk or act as though “Christians” or “the church” are to be associated primarily with atrocities of the past and present is another thing entirely. To criticize “the church” for all the bad things Christians and professing Christians do today is another thing entirely.
And there are Christians who do this, not just occasionally, but who make it a point to talk about it a lot. There are a few Christians I follow on Twitter who seem to make it their mission to criticize something Christians do with nearly every tweet — not, it seems, to exhort or correct Christians, but to shame them while virtue-signaling to the rest of the world. There are some who eschew the church — and perhaps refuse to attend a church at all (contrary to the instructions of Hebrews 10:25) — because of all the problems they perceive it has.
We would do well to remember that the church was put in place by Christ, and that the Scripture places an incredibly high value on the church. The church, indeed, is called the bride of Christ. Yet it seems to be fashionable to criticize the bride of Christ. That’s a rather audacious thing to do. If you wouldn’t criticize someone else’s bride, why would you criticize the bride of Christ?
And it doesn’t matter if, when you say these things, you mean “the institution of the church.” That’s not what the Bible says the church is. The church is God’s people, Christ’s bride and prized possession. When you criticize the church or are ashamed to associate with the church, the community of God’s people, that’s what you’re criticizing. You’re taking the guilt that some individual Christians have for their own sin and laying it on the bride of Christ. Of course, just because the church is the bride of Christ doesn’t mean the church is sinless. We all need Christ to wash away our sins. But we had better be careful in attributing bad characteristics or actions to the whole bride.
I do think some people have good intentions in criticizing the church. I think some people want to express to the world that real Christianity is not the church they’ve heard about in history books or that mistreated them in some way. But in doing so, they present a contrast of “church bad, Jesus good” — as if they could pit Jesus against his own bride!
So in summary, when it comes to criticism of the church, here’s a few things we need to remember:
- The church is not an institution. The church is the people of God, including you and me.
- We do not need to choose between the church and Christ. Christ is glad to associate with the church. The Scripture calls the church his body and his bride. How can we be ashamed of the body and bride of Christ?
- We are not better than the church. We are part of the church. The church is full of messed-up people that Christ is purifying. We need the church; we need other people to help pick us up when we fall, and to help keep us falling in the first place. We need to serve people — specifically fellow Christians, and not just those we encounter in our jobs or neighborhoods — using our gifts. And we need to spend time with the community of God’s people, their flaws, our flaws, and all.
- We should address sin in the church without calling it the sin of the church. Just because some individuals in the church are guilty of a particular sin doesn’t mean that the whole church nationwide or worldwide is guilty of that sin. And just because any of us, or someone we know, are guilty of a certain sin doesn’t mean we can put that blame on the church as a whole. We can address the flaws of people (starting with ourselves), and even the wrong actions of particular congregations, without criticizing the body of Christ.
There are enough people who have the impression that the church has done more harm than good. Instead of indicting everyone else for the bad things Christians have done, we should show them and put on living display what the church really is at her best.
