Your Church is a Mess, Let's Find Hope!
Why you should read First Corinthians!
The church can be a mess. Not a day goes by that I don’t see, either locally or on social media, a post explaining how someone has been hurt by the church. I run in circles with a lot of pastors—and even pastors, especially pastors, have been hurt by the church.
I’ve seen churches go back on their word. I’ve seen gossip and slander tear congregations apart. I’ve seen spiritual abuse at the hands of leaders, and I’ve seen factions form around strong personalities. I’ve seen churches argue endlessly over small, non-essential things while ignoring real and present evil in their midst.
So let me be clear:
The Church is the bride and body of Christ. Every believer is called to find their place in it—to serve and to love.
The Church is beautiful. Christ chose her as the means through which He dwells and ministers to a broken world.
And yet... the Church is not what she should be.
Romanticizing the Past?
Some say the solution is to get back to how church used to be. But what do they mean? For some, it’s a nostalgic memory of their church thirty years ago. For others, it’s a desire to imitate the early church.
Both ideas are flawed.
Your church three decades ago was not the golden age. And frankly, neither was the early church.
The church in Jerusalem launched with a bang at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit moved. Believers were united in heart and ministry. For a time.
But it didn’t take long for cracks to show. In Acts, we see the church struggling because certain widows were being overlooked. Disunity crept in early.
What About Corinth?
The church at Corinth was established by Paul during his second missionary journey around A.D. 50. He stayed for a year and a half, and during that time, the church flourished. Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor—all came to believe. They worshiped together in homes each Lord’s Day. Corinth, a bustling port city, was full of idolatry and immorality. Yet God saved people there and worked miracles among them.
But just two years later, Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians—and what he addressed may surprise you:
Divisions and factions: some claimed allegiance to Paul, some to Apollos, some to Christ.
Worldly philosophy infiltrating the church.
Heinous sexual sin—a man sleeping with his stepmother.
Arguments over spiritual gifts.
Arguments over marriage.
Arguments over food.
Doubts about the resurrection.
And overarching all of it—a lack of love.
Sound familiar?
What Do We Do with This?
The church has always needed correction. Maybe your church doesn’t face all of these issues. Maybe it hasn’t hit a crisis... yet. But no church is immune.
Paul’s solution to Corinth’s dysfunction was not to throw up his hands or call for abandonment. It was to point them back to the simple, powerful truth of the gospel:
Christ crucified and resurrected.
That truth, Paul argues, is what reshapes how we live, how we think, how we treat each other. The power of the cross calls us to love—and love is what puts an end to needless division and strife.
So yes, the church is a mess. But she’s also a miracle.
And Christ still loves her.
So should we.
Let us look at the church in Corinth and see things as they are—honestly, with clear eyes. But let us also see what the church can become. And let us behold the power that makes her that way: Christ crucified and risen.