I have to ask, "Why is this okay?" In the words of a good friend of mine, "This kind of case-making wouldn't make it in the court of law; why does it make it with Christians?" In other words, this is slander at worst and a gross misrepresentation of the truth at "best." I'm here to say it's not okay. The Church as a whole, Jesus would say, is His bride... His wife. I just don't think Jesus would be happy with those who would dump on her!

Are there issues with specific churches? Yes! Some of the issues are even the things that the brothers bring up. But they aren't true for all churches; I don't believe their points are true for my church, for example. There was a pastor who in his podcasted sermon said that he and his church are both trying to bring the gospel into "context" for the culture around them, yet at the same time "contend" for historic biblical Christian faith. I heard about that from the senior pastor of my church! He and the elders of our church agree with that mission.

So there is an example of one church that is juxtaposed to much of how these brothers characterize the Church. I can only guess that if they had taken the time to go to churches around the country, I think they would have found at least a few more like mine. We are trying to reach a Post-Modern culture; we love and want to serve our community, and we love one another. There is simply an inherent problem with drawing conclusions that come from monologue and generalizations.

On the one hand, these guys had some great points and challenges for the Church and for individual Christians. If you are a Christian, you will be challenged, and God may even speak to you through the points the brothers make in this documentary. I'm just wary of anyone that tells us to leave the Church... that definitely doesn't jive with the Bible; it says in the Hebrews passage quoted above that we should spur each other on to love and good deeds and not give up meeting together. I'm guessing the meeting together means in church; whether that is a big church or a house church, I think that means church.

I think the reason this passage says not to leave the church, is that by its very definition, it needs people. People to spur each other on, to encourage one another, and sometimes to challenge each other to do church better. Leaving the church makes it weaker... do we really want a weak church, a weak bride, when the bridegroom comes back? If that day comes, Jesus will ask us why his bride is so anemic. What will our answer be? It wasn't relevant, so I left? Perish the thought...

My last point is a call to balance. One of the points the brothers made was that too much input and not enough output isn't good. That's a good point, the problem is in getting people to get rid of all input (the church) and move entirely to output. That's like telling someone who is obese, because of overeating and lack of exercise, to completely stop eating and start running marathons. Isn't the better advice to have a good balance between both? Shouldn't we tell people to go to a healthy church where you are fed the rich nourishing Word of God and encouraged, if not exhorted, to reach outward and serve, seek, and save those who are lost? I think so!

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