To Dare to Speak a Truth ...

For a time, I was actually "accused" (in a nice way) of being The Laughing Pastor by some folks who were reading both blogs ... I found it funny, but as I read the blog and got to know its creator through a much appreciated email exchange, I discovered a friend who shares similar views and VERY similar experiences of the Institutional Church ...

Yesterday I almost wept as I read his most recent posting call "when is church not a safe place?"

Over and over I have read book after book that talks about the ABUSE that Churches can inflict on themselves, each other, their paid staff, and people coming in the doors with the scraps of their lives in their hands seeking the help and Holiness that the Institution called the Church purports to offer ...

Over the last two years I've experienced first hand the brutality that "Good" Church people are capable of inflicting on someone that they take a dislike to ... I have witnessed the manipulative depths they are willing to plunge to GET THEIR OWN way rather than live with the truth and own some of the responsibility ... I've seen it - I've lived it ... and most of all I'VE SURVIVED IT.

They did their worst, and I emerged stronger, and more certain of who I AM, than I was when this began ... and they are left in the same place they have been repeatedly over the last 40 plus years pretending it is all better because "The Problem" is NOW gone ...

To that I can only say - LOOK IN A MIRROR, and ask yourself what is really ailing your faith community??? What is the REAL PROBLEM??? and start dealing with that, rather than finding a convenient scape goat that rubbed you the wrong way and in his/her dysfunction needed help, but received instead only rejection, abuse and betrayal ...

Pastor Blake, a colleague and a friend for whom I have deep and abiding respect hits the nail on the head when he observes - Often church is not willing to allow some people in. If a person can't come in....how can a person learn and experience God's presence and power.

One of my mentors in ministry said long ago - "the Church is BODY of the RISEN Christ, not some namby-pamby warm pink fuzzy social club ... our calling is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted and to live the GOSPEL in our world without fear, hesitation or shame ... unfortunately too often the Church - the ONE place ALL should be welcomed in without hesitation NOR condition - has become a place where only the select few are allowed ... and the vast majority of US go silently along and shrug our shoulders and throw up our hands and say and do nothing to stop this horrid UNFAITHFUL ABUSE ...

and it is ABUSE ... I've heard over and over from the "great unwashed masses" like me, who have been thrown out of the Institution of the Church ...

But the whisper of prophetic hope in this moment is ... in the darkness of being rejected by the Human created and maintained church (an institution that is slowly collapsing under its own weight), we are finding not only each other - but others who share similar experiences and who like us, are hurting ...

WE are no longer content to cover our ears, our eyes, our mouths and stifle our spirit and pretend everything is fine ... instead we are talking amongst ourselves, and like my Spiritual Forebearers who gave the world the German Methodist Tradition that became the Evangelical United Brethren - we are asking the question - "What about us???"

And as that question rolls from our lips, the Spirit takes note ... and something WILL happen ... maybe we will form a diaspora Church that gathers in the broken, the wounded and the rejected ... Maybe like our founder, we will meet in the market places and the food courts and where the people gather ... and in time we will be part of a much needed renewal of The Body of the Risen Christ, that actually lives its faith by caring for people and helping them gather the scraps of their lives, rather than being concerned MORE about appearances, and propriety and rules and budgets ... and instead we gather in Community to proclaim Christ Risen and ALIVE among us !!!

What the world needs NOW is LOVE ... and unfortunately, too often that is the ONE thing LACKING in the Institutional Church ... there are TOO many egos there to leave room for the quiet, unassuming presence of unconditional LOVE ...

Time for a change !!!!
Time to LIVE OUR FAITH and throw open the DOORS, and cast out the publicans and politicians who have for too long constrained the Spirit and stifled the Church ... Like Tutu says - "if it goes against the Will of GOD, it can not stand ..."

Come Holy Spirit Come !!!! and set YOUR people free !!!!
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