Loving the Church

Ed Stetzer writing about the insane percentages of young people who drop out of church once they go off to college:

"I think we have a very casual approach to that covenant community called church," he suggests. "Ephesians 3:10 reminds us that God has chosen the church to make known His manifold wisdom in the world -- and I think we have to help people connect better to the church."

According to the Christian researcher, many young people today are simply reflecting a "church culture" created by modern-day believers -- a culture he says is very consumer-oriented and that encourages an attitude that says "if you don't meet my needs here, I'll go somewhere else."

"And when you do that," he adds, "you create a culture where people can say 'I love Jesus, but I don't love his wife'"

I've noticed this strange idea of being up on Jesus, but down on church. And, while churches have their flaws, the local church is still God's ordained (according to His manifold wisdom) way of displaying Himself to the world.

I've also found that a lot of people like to clothe their lack of love with pious sounding words...