The two biggest problems in the church are success and selfishness. Firstly, Churches try so hard to be successful, whether it be in having the best numbers, the best sermons, the best small group program (Which are called Bible Studies people. If you aren't studying the Word don't bother.), or the best worship (don't even get me started on worship.. well maybe later.) The Church is not about success, it is about obedience and discipline. Numbers don't matter. Sermons are only good if they edify the congregation with the Word of God. Small groups only matter if those within them are becoming more like Christ and learning from the Word of God (not some damn book or DVD.) And worship, well worship only matters if the only reason you are doing it is because God is God. Forget your drums, your guitars, your organ or your hymn book. If you're doing it in any way for how it makes YOU feel, STOP.

And this brings me neatly to the second problem; selfishness. We are so very very focused on ourselves. Even when we worry about the pagans and reaching out to then it's so often because we are thinking of them and not that we are trying to obey God. We bitch about worship not "doing it for us". We want God to show us His plan for our lives, His wonderful magical path for us, who we'll marry, where we'll live, what job we should have and how we should "serve" Him. And none, not any of this matters. It's all us thinking about ourselves, which is entirely the opposite of the purpose of Christ. Christ came to show us back to and clarify (for we, in our ignorance, distort even the simplest commandment) the true purpose of the Old Law and then, through His death and resurrection, give us the opportunity to move beyond our sin and begin the difficult and often painfully glorious process of casting off our godless selves and becoming the whole and Holy beings God intends us to be. God's plan for us is to be obedient to and focused on Him, full stop. To want anything beyond this for ourselves (in regards to Church, though perhaps in a more whole sense) is to miss the point of Christ, not to mention the Word of God.

I say these things, not to be negative, but to be honest. We want it all to be terribly complicated and terribly easy, but Christianity is, in reality, so terribly simple and so terribly hard.