The role of today's church seems to be growing increasingly complicated. Perhaps it has always been that way. While the world goes mad, Christians are still oriented toward urging the nonbelieving world to come to Jesus, and the community of saints to come back to the Bible. However, the unregenerate world responds to the church in utterly fickle ways.
First, the culture of modernism tends to reject the use of the Gospel as a primary guide, considering Bible adherents to be simple-minded nuisances with outmoded ideals. However, on the other hand, the world also somehow expects that society will govern itself under universally-understood standards (but just not that bible thing).
In other instances, people criticize the church because it does not always cure every ill in the society (or with immediate dispatch). The bizarre inference given such reluctance is that these people would only join the fight once the war has been won.
This criticism is a close relative to a few familiar others: "I would join the church, but all they do is take your money," or "... but there are just too many hypocrites there." It is somewhat doubtful whether these critics themselves have any greater propensity toward better ethics, budgetary soundness, or tenacity.
Just as was illustrated with the twelve-plus-one apostles whom Jesus chose, the Church is made up of people having ordinary virtues and vices, yet called by an extraordinary Savior to dedicate the essence of their being toward the goal of the world's redemption. The pool of talent from which the church is populated is generally reflective of both the good and bad in the society, and therein lies the problem.
Had Jesus merely sent in flawless extra-terrestrial beings to form his Church, the work of the Gospel might theoretically work in a much smoother fashion. However, that plan would by definition necessitate an invasion of alien beings who would lack a first-hand understanding what it means to be "one of us."
Perhaps that is why Jesus wrapped himself in flesh to set off the chain reaction commonly known as the Gospel. The same God who had appeared in a wide variety of manifestations in times past, saw fit to be "one of us" while instituting the church age.
Still, one might wonder why God would choose the Church to be the incumbent vehicle for this age, considering the faults of its individual members. Perhaps the answer is in the existence of the faults. The essential purpose of the Church is to put God's plan and personality on display. It is difficult to imagine a better model than the Church to demonstrate both the foolhardiness of the world's standards of righteousness, in contrast with God's own perfect Way, Truth and Life.
Although Christians are at times disappointing, it is also true that the world's standard is an utter failure. The Gospel, to the contrary, by stressing redemption rather than rejection, is accessible to all kinds of people, lacking the conditionality found under the world's standard. Following Christ requires only that we reject the paths of our own destruction.
