Things I Don't Like About Church

Donald Miller, in his book Blue Like Jazz, begins a section by saying:

"Here are the things I didn't like about the churches I went to. First: I felt like people were trying to sell me Jesus. I was a salesman for a while, and we were taught that you were supposed to point out all the benfits of a product when you are selling it. That is how I felt about some of the preachers I heard speak. They were always pointing out the benefits of the Christian faith. That rubbed me wrong. It's not that there aren't benefits, there are, but did they have to talk about spirituality like it's a vacuum cleaner. I never felt like Jesus was a product. I wanted Him to be a person. Not only that, but they were always pointing out how great the specific church was. the bulletin read like a brochure for Amway. They were always saying how life-changing some conference was going to be. Life-changing? What does that mean? It sounded very suspicious. I wish they could just tell it to me straight rather than trying to sell me on everything. I felt like I got bombarded with commercials all week and then went to church and got even more."

Those are great comments - ones I need to hear as a pastor. Like Miller, I don't like the selling of Jesus, and I don't want to be part of an infomercial, either.

I'm currently reading Blue Like Jazz, and I'm enjoying it. (This doesn't mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that I agree with everything Miller writes. It simply means that it's a good read.)