Letter to my (ex) Methodist Pastor, "What is My Idea of the Perfect Church"

The new pastor in one of his first services stated that he would soon request all members to provide their comments to the question, what is your idea of the perfect church. About a year went by and he never followed through, so I sent him the following unsolicited letter. And then following the letter you might want to read about a little meeting he had with me shortly after.



Letter


Dear Rev....

“What is your vision of the perfect church?” You asked us to consider this question on your first Sunday at First Methodist and it was a good question, actually a great question at this time of generally declining church membership and attendance.  But maybe an even better question would be, “What is Christ’s vision of the perfect church?”

A couple of years ago, I met with our youth minister. In the course of the conversation, I was struck with how familiar he was with the churches of the community and surrounding area. I asked him if he knew of any churches which had as their primary focus, the teaching and practicing of what Christ taught. He paused for a brief moment and then said, “No, I actually don’t”. My response was, “Wow, that’s kind of incredible and very sad isn’t it? To be honest, if he would have named such a church in a reasonable distance, and it did in fact teach what Christ taught, I would have jumped ship and gone there.

I believe Christ’s vision is that one day soon some church in some major denomination will look at his “Great Charter”, with a fresh perspective and hear and apply with all their hearts, minds, and strength Christ’s words, at the tail end of the charter which so far seem to have been overlooked, “….teaching them everything that I have taught you.” And, as you well know Rev, this wasn’t the only directive from Jesus to hear and put into practice everything he taught, like, “If you love me follow my commandments”, or “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and don’t do what I say?”.

I believe that if even one church took these words to heart even if not perfectly, but to the very best of their ability and with all the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit behind them, that church would quickly grow, hearts would be transformed, the fruit of the sinful nature would be swiftly replaced with the fruit of the Spirit. People would see that they were becoming less burdened, more at peace and experiencing more joy than ever before. The word would spread. Then, naturally other churches would follow seeing the success and the positive changes and the obvious theological soundness of simply actually following the one we claim to be following.

So a week or so after sending that letter, I received an email inviting me to meet with the Rev. I politely but directly restated the reality that the church is dying. Every year, year after year attendance is on a decline. Then I stated that maybe it's because people don't see value in hearing the same stories about Jesus and other Bible characters year after year for decades. This no longer motivates them to get up in the morning on one of only two days off in a given week. I went into, how beneficial and life-changing focusing on the inner teachings could be, like do not judge, remove the beam from your own eye first, love your neighbor, love others as I have loved you (without conditions). The Rev politely heard me out then made this statement, "Well, I'd like to think that we're already doing that." Of course he wasn't, teaching the stories about Christ only serves to idolize him, whereas teaching what Christ taught, teaches us to follow him.

I didn't argue. I could see that his mind was resolute. Still, I couldn't believe that he would be willing to keep doing the same thing week after week while the ship of the church was sinking.

About six months later, I left the church and joined a nearby Unity Church of Light.