Matt's Blog

Matt, a seminary graduate and our nephew, has a blog called The Church of No People. His newest blog is entitled "The Pastor is a Phony" He, and those who comment, make some interesting observations about pastors and churches.

http://www.thechurchofnopeople.com

Matt writes, after being in a house church, he would never want to go back to the institutional church. From the point of view of a PK and then a minister, I can see where he is coming from. No sane person would ever want to be a part of what he has seen. Very few people know the meanness that went on behind the scenes.

Does the church, as we "do church" in this country, really glorify God? Is this what the Lord intended as his church or have we distorted it to be something different using the same language?

Jesus says, 'by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another'. Do we really? Do church people make excuses about being imperfect, or worse, as a justification to keep on sinning instead of doing what is right?

The people in the pews show up but the majority do not believe the basic doctrines or the things of scripture such as the virgin birth or the resurrection according to poles and surveys. They come to be entertained, to be "fed" and to consume far too often instead of to serve. That's fine for babies but .....when do they start to grow up?

What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Is this what Christ wants us to do or is it just cultural tradition?

We used to joke that the structure of the Methodist denomination was so good and strong that the church would continue to exist 100 years even if they discovered god really was dead (a popular thing in the 70's but pure nonsense).

Matt and his followers have lots of interesting thoughts.