I Don't Want a Country Club Church.

Have you ever felt like church was a clique you were never really cool enough to be a part of?

Maybe you just lingered on the outskirts of truly "fitting in" or "getting involved," and you found yourself jealous or insecure about it. You weren't sure what qualified someone to be truly involved and well-liked, but it seemed that some pre-requisites included signing up for every volunteer opportunity, baking the most cakes for the annual cake auction, and having a perfect marriage, with perfect kids, and a perfectly well-kept house.

Maybe church never opened its doors or arms to you for one reason or another. Maybe your sexual orientation or skin-color prohibited you from truly being accepted into the fold, and you could never get quite comfortable within its walls, because instead of feeling like a hospital for the broken, church always felt more like a museum for the perfect.

Maybe you're burnt out because church for you has become a to-do list, a full calendar -- Sunday mornings and evenings, choir practice, volunteering with youth or children's ministries on Wednesday, dinner clubs on Thursday, small groups on Saturday. It's become quantity over quality, more about what you can do for the church rather than who you are and how the church lives within you.

If you've been a Christian for a long period of time or have spent any amount of time in the Church at all, then you most likely have experienced what I call country club church.

Country club church is what happens when the church becomes clique-ish, closed off, and focuses more on politics than on making heaven crowded. Country club church is what happens when we fall in love with who we are and what we can do rather than who our Savior is and what He's done for us all.

If country club church is the reason you're no longer plugged in or engaged in a faith community, I am so sorry. I am so sorry that you have been burned, hurt, or condemned. I am so sorry that you've felt excluded, and wondered were Jesus was within all of this messiness.

The truth is that no church will ever be perfect, because churches are comprised of broken people. Every church is full of sinners, it's true. (And if a church tries to tell you otherwise, run.)

But I can't help but wonder if country club churches are symptoms of a larger problem, not the problem itself. Have we convinced ourselves that churches are successful if we can sufficiently entertain our people with smoke machines and electric guitars? Have we convinced ourselves that churches are successful if we have more programs, more Sunday school classes for every single age group or life stage, more more more? Have we convinced ourselves that we have to earn the Lord's approval by accumulating more, and if we confess we have sinners in our midst, we'll be forsaken? Is it possible we've become so obsessed with having the right answers, that we've forgotten we're a people called to right action?

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. -Col. 13:12-13 ESV

I don't want a church that can offer me a fantastic light show during worship. I don't want a pastor in skinny jeans who preaches about the dangers of Tindr or posts regularly on SnapChat. I don't want a church where the women smile to your face, and then slander you the second you turn away.

I want a church of humility, a church where we're called holy because we are compassionate, kind, gentle, and patient. I want a church that can put up with my crap without me having to hide who I am and what I struggle with. I want a church where we can hash out our differences, or at the very least, act lovingly despite our differences. I want a church that is so chockfull of forgiveness and grace that it's almost uncomfortable. I want to be able to bring my friends who are different and quirky and outcasts, and know that they will be loved on and cherished simply because they bear the fingerprints of our God-creator.

If you're tired of a country club church, I think it's up to us to change it. We don't live in a Kingdom that is called topsy-turvy for no reason; we are a trickle up economy, not a trickle down! That means it's on us, the lay-people, to build the church we need. This is the church we need:

Psalm 82:2-4

How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Proverbs 17:17

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

Proverbs 31:8-9

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Isaiah 58:6-7

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Luke 3:10-11

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

John 15:12-13

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Romans 12:9-10

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Galatians 6:2

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

1 Peter 4:10-11

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.