Critic from Within

Christianity Today Magazine - Bono's Thin Ecclesiology

Bono has said repeatedly that Christianity without an element of social justice is empty. We agree. But a Christian's pleading for social justice without worshiping God regularly within the community of the church is little more than activism for its own sake. Any person can stand outside the church and critique its obedience to the gospel. Part of God's call on a Christian's life is to walk inside and die to self by relating to other human beings, both in their fallenness and in their redeemed glory.

I understand those who leave the church. It's sometimes hard to continue to believe when the church seems so far from what it should be. But it's not an option. To leave the church (not the institution, but a group of believers) is to miss out. We all need others, even in their fallenness.