Recently I have read some blogs by people who,
by all accounts I can see, are God-centered people. What they have been writing
about is why they, or others, have left the church. (Here
are a couple by Christian Piatt: Seven
Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church and Four
More BIG Reasons Young Adults Quit Church and one by Rachel Held Evans: 15 Reasons I Left
the Church.)
My first response to these articles is,
“Yeah. Me too.” These are the reasons I want
to leave the church. But I can’t seem to do it for a variety of reasons, not
the least of which is that, as a pastor, my family and I depend on the paycheck
that I collect for being a part of the church.
I truly believe that the Holy Spirit it at work outside of the
institutional church and I want to be at work where the Holy Spirit is but I’m genuinely
having trouble making the transition.
My second response is that I want to apologize. I want to
apologize on behalf of the Church. But I can't. I can only apologize for the way
that I have represented the Church as a leader and for the way that I have
participated in the very things that have driven people away. I apologize
for:
