Church is Messy

Excerpts from Dan Kimball post:  Learning from college students at Anderson University

...

I am starting to communicate when I speak at places like Anderson University, some of what I have written in my forthcoming book "Adventures in Churchland" . This book is my first non-church leaders book coming out in September 2011. (If you go to the Churchland book link, the wording and description there is not all correct and a they wrote a few somewhat goofy ways to describe it and it will be changing hopefully soon. It's all in the process of how marketing teams interact with the author in communicating  what the book is about - if you have published you know what I mean). 

I wrote the Churchland book with college students in mind as one of the main readers. The book is about how the church is definitely odd at times and done some bad things throughout history. Many of us have been hurt or disillusioned with the church at some point (I share a personal story in this book when I was about to totally give up on organized church while on a church staff). But even if you feel like a misfit in the church, the church is the "Bride of Christ" (Ephesians 5:22-33 and Revelation 21:9-10). And the church is what Jesus chose to represent Him in this world (2 Corinthians 5:20 ...1 Corinthians 12). And I am very optimistic that we can be making change in the church - even despite the messiness. The church is messy, because we are messy. Habitual mess or intentional mess is unhealthy of course. But I believe the local church (in her many forms) is God's way of bringing the love of Jesus to people and communicating about the "good news" of Jesus. 

                                                                                     

...
                                                                                                                                             
I really love interacting and learning when I travel - and what I have heard over and over and over and over and over again from college students is a general sense of frustration with the "church" (especially if from denominational churches or others who refuse to change).  I believe it is very possible that "organized church" can be exponentially impactful on mission - if we are organized around the right things. And not organized around the senior pastor or control or organized around tradition for tradition's sake which then can get in the way of mission.                                              

...