For many, the church is synonymous with irrelevancy: an archaic institution inhabited by pallid and wispy clerics, mumbling feathery platitudes to an audience of women, children, and the feeble of mind and body.

Stephen Crosby

Once there was a successful apple merchant whose reputation for having excellent apples began to suffer through his lack of diligence. He got into the habit of leaving spoiled apples in his cart. In the same town there was a thief, who through the years had regularly pinched apples from the merchant's cart. After repeated rotten apple experiences, the thief took his bandit skills elsewhere. The good news is the apple merchant was able to maintain his inventory. The bad news is, he was ignored by the thief (and paying customers) and his inventory was rotten. Now, the thief cannot blame his thievery on the rotten apples. But the merchant shouldn't be surprised when he converts to oranges.

For hundreds of years, the unbelieving culture has taken up the challenge of Psalm 34:8 to: "taste and see that the Lord is good," by biting into the Lord's image on earth--the Church. Acknowledging the existence of delightful exceptions, on the whole, the taste has not matched the "as advertised" promise. The Church's poor representation of Her Lord will never be an individually justifying excuse on judgment day: another man's hypocrisy, does not establish my innocence. However, we who represent the Lord, and who constitute the Church, should not be surprised when the world ignores us, gives up on our apples, and starts looking for oranges elsewhere. We do carry the responsibility of representation.

For many, The Church (or a church) is synonymous with irrelevancy: an archaic institution inhabited by pallid and wispy clerics mumbling feathery platitudes to an audience of women, children, and the feeble of mind and body. The notion that the church might be something vigorous and vital--a high value necessity--has vanished from the public consciousness like morning fog under the noon-day sun. Paul McCartney captured the sentiment in his song, Eleanor Rigby:

Father MacKenzie, writing the words of sermon that no one will hear,
No one comes near.
Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there,
What does he care?

Can there be an image more irrelevant than the man who is supposed to be a "flame of fire" reduced to patching his socks, alone, in the dark?. . . an accurate, and painful, artistic metaphor for the ineffectual presence of the Church in the public consciousness. It was true forty years ago when those lines were written, and unlike fine wine, the situation has not improved with time.

How did we arrive at this unfortunate state? That is a short question with a long answer. To catalog the repulsive historical failures of the Church (Her own diseases) and the assaults against Her from foes of spirit and flesh (the wounds of others), would require a few volumes, rather than a few paragraphs. I would like to confine this article to one point: . . .

. . . UNMET EXPECTATIONS

Unmet expectations are the source of conflict and relational breakdown at many levels. The human spirit can only absorb so much disappointment before it instinctively recoils. A good customer is often willing to over look a bad apple or two. A customer that really loves you might even overlook a bad bushel or two. But if your fruit makes people sick over decades or centuries, even your friends will buy elsewhere.

When I was in business, I learned that the best customer is a complaining one. A complaining customer at least gives you a chance to fix a problem. It is the silent customer you dread: he/she simply walks away, never to return.

If a thirsty man comes to a well, he expects water. The well, by its nature, advertises itself as a water source. If the well is just a hole in the ground with a rope and bucket, it should not be surprised to find itself suddenly full of rocks. It is both reasonable and fair to expect of those who profess to possess the Truth, Glory, and Power of God to demonstrate it.

The cultural irrelevancy of the church in our day derives in part from unmet expectations concerning the nature of the Church. A well, by definition and essence, advertises water. A church, in its very existence, advertises itself as "possessing something (or Someone!)" What is that "something/One?" What is the Church?" What should the Church look like? These are questions of expectation. Rather than examining the quality of our own fruit, or the dryness of our well, we too often express indignation that the question should even be asked. We curse the orange merchants and the thieves who frequent his shop as unworthy to evaluate us.

The Church is considered (erroneously) above the evaluations of this world, answerable only to a "Higher Power." That is a formula for irrelevancy. We must not let the eternal nature of the Church immunize us from critique by those (the unbelieving world) we have supposedly been sent to serve! Those who would be elders are supposed to have a good testimony from those who are without the church (1Tim.3:7). James says that Abraham's works justified him (James 2:21-24). They did not justify him before God-that occurs by grace and faith. There is no conflict between Paul and James. Abraham's works "justified" him before humanity. His works legitimized his faith in the eyes of the unbeliever. The Church's behavior/service legitimizes its message/faith in the ears of its audience. We are supposed to have works (behaviors) that testify to the reality of God and our personal faith. (Matt.5:16). Our behavior is the tray upon which we serve our message and faith. The message must be served. It cannot be thrown across the table.