On My Mind

I've had this on my mind a lot lately.
My friend Cody is an amazing minister.
And I love reading his blog.
He is an incredible writer.
I feel that he understands what it means to follow Christ.
And he put into words something that has been on my mind for a while.
You can read an excerpt below.
But to get the real deal you need to go here.

"Over and over throughout my years in the church, I have heard statistics cited about the number of people who are turned off by hypocrisy in the church. Growing up I was taught this was all about the "don'ts"- in other words, if people hear you cuss or see you take a drink or hang out with the hang people, then that is what turns them away.

But having been around for awhile now, and being a minister, more often than not what I hear people mean when they talk about hypocrisy and Christians is the fact that we claim to take the teaching of Jesus seriously, but then we actually DON'T love our neighbor. Or they point to the infighting that we have. "I get enough politics and backstabbing at work. I don't need to add MORE of it to my life," I've heard more than one or two say.

I am not saying being a hypocrite does not include the things we ought to avoid in life. But more and more I am surprised at how many who use that as their reason for being turned off by the church actually take serious Jesus' teachings about how we love others, the oppressed, the poor, the overlooked, people who are different. I have come to the conclusion that they are not so much concerned about the other issues. By and large, I have found most who use this reason for rejecting the church are actually quite understanding about those issues, because they know people struggle with issues of sin, addiction, and temptation. What they can't understand is our disconnect when it comes to love..."