Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, talks about looking at our churches through critical lenses:

If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

In a tremendous and much needed post, titled On Constantly Taking Your Church’s Temperature, Jared Wilson expands upon Bonhoeffer’s insights, applying them to the contemporary church. Rather, Wilson applies them to ambitious pastors and zealous church members who are overly critical about their own local congregations.

As Wilson relays, Bonhoeffer also said:

When a person becomes alienated from a Christian community in which he has been placed and begins to raise complaints about it, he had better examine himself first to see whether the trouble is not due to his wish dream that should be shattered by God; and if this be the case, let him thank God for leading him into this predicament.

If this advice was followed not only would the Church be better off, but so would the very ones who put themselves above it.

This is a fantastic article by Dennis over at GRACE & PEACE. This article has great insights on today’s church, what about problems in the church…what role do we play and how should we handle these perceived problems? Is the real problem maybe us and our view?

To finish reading this very relevant article about today’s church and our role in it, please visit Dennis over at http://wdennisgriffith.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/constantly-taking-your-churchs-temperature/  While you are there, why not check out the rest of Dennis site? Let him know you were there and tell him how much you enjoyed his article(s)