Chatting to a friend this week who, after some recent tough times, looked at re-connecting to church. Apparently, the only problem is that (in his words) churches have 'church people'. [A seemingly obvious statement]
He doesn't like the fake-ness... "Hi, how are you?" "I'm doing fine, how about you?" "I'm also fine". It doesn't matter that one or both people aren't. The only acceptable answer is "fine". (Or "great" if you wanna go for bonus points).
Why is this the only acceptable answer? Because anything else brings you a wheelbarow full of trouble. In short, as my friend says, "I don't go there for judgement and narrow-mindedness". [Again, a seemingly obvious statement. Who would come for that? What kind of church would think people want that?]
So, the end result is that the church community is ineffective at helping one another (or others) with anything, because people have to pretend they have it all together, all the time. Authenticity 0, Helpfulness 0.
Or, if you prefer to keep score a different way, my friend's experience ticks 3 of the unChristian boxes - hypocritical, sheltered and judgemental.
[Related Link: Using the Christian "F" word]
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