Confused by Jesus or Us?

It's a balmy day in southeast Missouri where I live. We've got blustery winds, mostly sunny skies, and temperatures in the seventies. If I don't get on a river and/or get to fishing soon, I might break something. (Of course, they say we could be getting snow by Tuesday.)

Again, "Swimmin'Upstream" (whoever this is...I can't access his/her profile), raises the right issues. People in the public as a whole are often confused and even put-off by denominational structures, complicated rituals, and the incongruity between that which Christians profess and how they live. I remember some spoken lyrics in a song by Casting Crowns which I heard recently. Speaking to professing Christians, a child's voice says, "People aren't confused by Jesus; they're confused by us!" A recent article in REV magazine backs this up in sobering fashion. For years Christians have been told that about 40% of the American population is in worship weekly. The writer of the article points at that this is on the basis of self-reporting. In fact, when the actual faith practices of people are tracked, the figure is dramatically lower. While spiritual hunger is at an all time high in our culture, confidence in organized churches is at a low ebb. This is true for virtually all Christian expressions - Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, and "evangelical." (I'll go into this article in more detail in my next post.)

This is sobering. We who are connected to organized churches can respond in several ways. We can practice denial, which apparently we've been doing for a while. We can get angry and defensive. We can blame clergy, or laypersons, or society, or all of the above. We can collapse in despair and give up. Or we can see this as an opportunity; a God-given chance to realign ourselves with God who is made known in and through Jesus, regardless of the effect on the organizations and practices on which we've become dependent.

Is it possible that we who say we want others to meet Jesus are a part of a significant barrier to that meeting taking place? What do you think? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.