Page raises the basic conundrum of the history of the church. From its beginning, as recorded in the Gospels, and certainly through church history, the church has been peopled by a myriad of people who do not measure up to even human expectation, let alone divine expectation. There are ample examples of pastors and members of churches that are self-serving, narrow minded, self-righteous, and all of the other negative characteristics that we might mention. One of the great and continuing scandals of the church is its disunity. For disciples who were told by their master that the world would know that we are Christ’s disciples if we love one another, we do a poor job of making that testimony.
This is not a new problem. From the beginning of Israel as a people and continuing on through the disciples and then on into church history, the question has always been, can God work through a clearly imperfect people. A unique feature of Scripture is that it refuses to white wash the leading figures of Scripture. Can we, as pastors and members trust the message of God to Paul that God’s grace is made perfect in our weakness.
If God does not require either churches or pastors to be perfect before God’s word is proclaimed, then how do we learn to trust that God knew what God was doing in establishing the church. Of course if we believe this, then the next question is whether we can trust this in our own ministry.
I have tried to express how I believe this plays out in the nature of the church in earlier posts but it is something that we need to continue to explore.
