Introduction

Greetings everyone!

Let me explain: This may sound like I'm against people and church families and pastors (yours, for example); I am most definitely not. I go to "a church", and I love it. I don't doubt that you may too.

This blog is an expression of my own experience with churches as organizations--many of them, covering a wide range of types and sizes, over my entire lifetime. Of course, my experience may not reflect yours, and that's fine. But if the point of writing is to express of your own viewpoint, then this is what I'm doing.

My experience with churches as a person raised in one, than as one who left it, then came back as a "new convert", then a ministry leader, pastor, ex-pastor, etc. has been one of the biggest defining points of my life. My experience with churches has been an adventure of seeking, discovery, amazing experiences, deep pain, and renewal. Maybe yours has too.

I also come to this writing with my faith intact, amazingly enough. You may be surprised to discover that, despite my title, I still believe in the church--THE Church, that is. I'll explain what I mean by THE Church along the way, as I explore its differences from "churches", which are, I believe, not exactly what Jesus had in mind.

What I want to share here is my own observations and viewpoint about the many differences between churches and THE Church. As I've indicated, I think one sucks and the other doesn't. But I want to be really clear about this.

I have come to the conclusion that churches differ from THE Church in the areas of Competition, Marketing, Budget, Chain of Command, Inner Politics, Public Politics, Bureaucracy, Religion, Lecture-Hall Style, and Organizational Paradigm.

The main sections of this writing will be:

• Church politics sucks
• Church business sucks
• Church hierarchy sucks
• Church teaching sucks
• Church culture sucks

For some, it may seem somewhat sensationalist to use the word "sucks" for all these things. You might have me on that--to a point. Because when I use the word "sucks", it's because, unfortunately, these things really do suck--they suck the life out of people, and they suck the life out of God's good news, turning it into an overly-complicated religious/social/political/business system--which is no good news at all.

Where does this all lead?

I don't pretend that this writing will change the church world; it probably won't. This is something that's been around for thousands of years (even before "the church" began), and will be around until the resolution of all things.

What I hope this will do is give voice and clarity to the person who is confused by all this. I also hope that it will encourage those who have felt something "not quite right" about the whole church thing, but don't want to give up on the church.

I hope this may even help church leaders in their effort to lead God's people. Please remember that anything critical I may say about churches or church leaders is never meant to take anything away from the character and dedication that define many of them. My criticisms are never personal; they are systematic. But the system affects everyone within it, including the leaders.

When I first got into ministry, I was unaware of any of this. Now I know, and I wish I had known much earlier. When you're a leader in a church, you want to do the right thing. I understand that, and never mean any disrespect or discouragement to anyone. But what I've discovered is that when you're leading in "churches", the rules are different than in THE Church. You've been led to think it's one way, but it's really not. And almost 1500 pastors per year in America are fired or forced to resign, because what they thought it was, isn't what it really is.

So, please join me on this journey. I will express my thoughts, because that's what writing is all about. But I don't claim to be the final voice. This is a conversation that needs to happen; please join it.