NO JUDGEMENT

At my gym, along one long wall, in two foot tall lettering and stretching a full thirty feet, are two words, "No Judgement."

Gym members come in all sizes and shapes and shades and select their own exercises and lengths of workouts and end objectives. We are all there to make improvements. Company is motivational.  

Churches use mottos, slogans, rally cries, catchwords and taglines too.

Sometimes soppy stuff like 'Feed and be Fed;' or, 'God is Still Speaking,' or 'Reaching Up and Reaching Out.'

Sometimes it's a wordy, wearying précis of paragraphs. 'A Church With Respect For The Past, Passion For The Present, Vision For The Future.'

Sometimes it's unimpressive, uninspiring. For instance, 'The Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible; or, 'We are committed to teaching, preaching and standing by the Bible.'

I'm a veteran of church life. I know that a great deal of unwarranted judgement occurs where it should be least in evidence because we all sizes and shapes and shades and all equally in need of improvements and ultimately there is only one Grand Assessor and he loves us a lot.

I would like to see a church put up in two foot tall letters a banner twenty feet long that shouts NO JUDGEMENT.

Perhaps a prayer we might offer is this, 

FROM CYNICISM TO OPTIMISM

Maybe what needs to occur to modify our thinking about church from cynicism to optimism, is first of all to admit that it has not lived up to our expectations because we had an unrealistic picture of what she was. She is not Paradise. She is not Utopia. She is a gathering of once damaged people all of whom are in stages of recovery. Cynicism dissolves when we rid ourselves of wrong notions. Another thought shaper might be the acceptance of the role of the critic rather than the cynic. Criticism can be energizing to the subject of the criticism when it is genuinely delivered and honourably received. It’s like an objective performance analysis. Finally, a virtuous approach is to be the change that you wish to see in the church. This is far more demanding work than cynicism. It is about action and not merely about words. Yet how often in the past, those who have led by example, have been instrumental in awakening the church to new paradigms and necessary change. Maybe you have to live a radical life. Get past crabbing to contributing once again. If you truly want to become serious about the things that have made you cynical, then you must graduate to objectively speaking about this and living it.