“Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior.”

A thought by Philip Yancey (2014-10-21) from his book, Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News? (p. 263). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

This is a thought by Eugene Peterson in his introduction to the book of James and share here by Philip Yancey. And he continues, “They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced and dealt with.”

I was a pastor of churches that were hospitals. A place where hurting people came to be healed, emotionally, relationally, physically and spiritually. And the truth is we were not “model communities of good behavior.” We were for the most part a mess but we were people who knew that God loved us and that each other loved each other and accepted each other. That to me is what the church is.

As Philip says, “We must always remember that we bear the news of that lofty good as humble pilgrims, not as haughty power brokers. Somehow Christians have gotten the reputation as being morally superior when in fact we turn to God only when we have recognized our moral inferiority. As the recovery movement teaches, naked honesty and helplessness are what drive us to God. The truth, about ourselves and about our need for outside help, sets us free. We don’t need to pretend that things are fine or that goodness comes easily. We admit we are needy and look to God for both vision and strength to subvert the world.”

There is freedom and growth in that type of humility and honesty.

So why not be honest with Him?

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