The Church: A Light to The World?

grappling with the reality of brokenness in the Church with incredible hope

This article is part of the Claritas fall 2023 issue, Stages. Read the full print release here.

By: Annina Bradley

In Sunday school, I’d sit on a colorful playmat with my friends and sing “This Little Light of Mine,” sticking my index finger out like a glowing candle. Sometimes I’d get goldfish and an Oreo in a Dixie cup. I learned that Jesus taught His followers to collectively be “the light of the world.” Christians were meant to be a radiant symbol of hope amidst darkness on earth.

I learned, too, that God held the whole world in His hands, that He came to earth in human form to die on a cross and forgive all of humanity’s sins—including my own—and that He promised to redeem His creation and mend broken hearts. I learned that nothing could separate me from His love.

And when I was thirteen, attending my church’s main Sunday service with my parents, I learned of my former pastor’s affair. 

I’d only just figured out how to open my own locker at school, but I still felt the word “affair” linger heavily in the air. How was I to make sense of it?

After the initial fallout, many things didn’t make sense. I didn’t understand why members of our congregation were turning against our pastor’s family instead of supporting them through their devastation. I didn’t understand why some of my family’s friends were no longer speaking to one another. I didn’t understand why it was difficult for my parents to step back into the place I’d long known to preach truth and love. 

I was too young to understand the full scope of what had happened or even what the appropriate response might have been. But I did recognize that what was happening didn’t line up with the loving, luminous image of the Church I’d learned about in Sunday school. 

The reality is that we as humans are broken, as are many Christian churches and their leaders. Tragically, stories of church leaders failing aren’t all that uncommon. FX produced an entire docuseries about cheating scandals within the megachurch Hillsong. [1] Members of churches’ congregations, too, stumble and sin. And perhaps it’s not altogether surprising: We are imperfect people, our human nature is fallen. 

According to a New York Times opinion piece, American churches today are polarized by “the white evangelical embrace of Donald Trump, sex abuse scandals in evangelical churches and parachurch organizations, and attitudes about race relations.” [2] Undeniably, within the Body of Christ—as the Church is repeatedly called throughout the New Testament—there exists strife.

But we, as Christians, are taught to believe in the spiritual unity of the Christian Church—that Christ’s followers will bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, peace, and faithfulness, to name a few. [3] God compassionately promises to spiritually transform those who abide in Him, equipping Christians to live lives of virtue. The opening lines of a contemporary Christian song, “By Our Love,” state “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,” “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.” [4]

It was the first time I had encountered human fallibility to such a degree, and it came, disorientingly, from a church leader in whom I and many others had placed great confidence.

Thus, when the Church and its members fail, the resulting devastation is arguably more harmful than comparable disappointment in secular institutions. When the Church falls short of being the beacon of love and light that God designed it to be in the world, it can provoke questioning of the fundamental grounds of one’s faith and, furthermore, push non-Chrisitians away from ever seeking faith.

For many, brokenness and division in the Christian Church is a cause for abandoning Christianity altogether. Russell Moore, a prominent theologian and ethicist, wrote that young believers are walking away from evangelicalism not because they don’t believe what the Church teaches, “but because they believe that the church itself does not believe what the church teaches.” [5] And frankly, the reaction to leave an institution upon encountering deep hypocrisy seems reasonable.  

It’s not easy to recover from wounds caused by betrayal within the Church. Nor is it easy to comprehend how the Church can be so politically and socially fragmented despite God’s design for its unity. Yet, just as the first step in recovery from any bodily injury is to acknowledge the injury’s existence with a diagnosis, we must first grapple with the reality of the Christian Church’s fallibility in order to heal as one unified Church. 

By holding two things in our hands at once—an honest recognition of human fallibility and an unwavering love for God’s people—we are able to humbly and mercifully hold leaders and one another accountable for sin that severely corrupts our relationship with God and those around us. 

Faith requires us to look unflinching at the reality of human brokenness and still find extraordinary hope in God’s promises. The apostle Paul displays this hope in Romans 8:18, writing, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” [6] 

We must stand in the paradoxical tension between regarding the broken nature of humanity with honest pessimism, and regarding God’s redemption with radical optimism. 

In Orthodoxy, author and theologian G.K Chesterton encourages us to wrestle with this paradox: “Can [an ordinary man] hate [the world] enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing?... Can he, in short, be at once not only a pessimist and an optimist, but a fanatical pessimist and a fanatical optimist?” [7] Chesterton continues by imparting that it is the rational optimist who fails and the irrational optimist who succeeds. 

The benefit of radical optimism is that it empowers us to see our trials as opportunities for triumph. Malcom Gladwell’s David and Goliath touches on this concept, arguing that the resilience experiencing shortcomings requires lends itself to greater victory. Gladwell writes, “Much of what we consider valuable in our world arises out of (these kinds of) lopsided conflicts, because the act of facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty.” [8]

What is unique about the Christian Church, composed of all Christ’s followers, is its insistence on being held together and growing stronger. 1 Corinthians 12:26 references the Church, stating, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” [9] As Christians, we are obligated to one another. We are to suffer and mourn with one another in view of the shortcomings of our churches. We are to take action to uproot sin that is evidenced by many witnesses, and we are to forgive abundantly. 

Returning to church after experiencing colloquially termed “church hurt” was a gradual process that required courage and a fragile rebuilding of trust. It also required vulnerability to the possibility of being disappointed again. I know I likely will be. 

Understanding that we are all broken but being redeemed is what enabled me to hold fast to my faith despite having witnessed many hurt by the Church. I can return to the comforting truth that I learned in my early days of Sunday school. God achieved victory over our sin when Jesus defeated death on the cross and He is still actively restoring His people and the Church. 1 Peter 2:5 addresses followers of Christ by stating “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” [10] God, in His mercy, promises to continue constructing His Church. 

The first winter I returned home after my freshman fall at Cornell, I attended a Christmas Eve service with my family. As our congregation sang carols and praises, we lit each other’s hand-held candles with a shared flame until the whole assembly was aglow. The image stuck with me. Hope in Christ’s redemption cannot be dimmed by any disappointment or suffering in life. It’s an inconceivable hope that turns mourning into dancing. It’s a confident hope that allows suffering and trials to deepen faith rather than upend it. 

This article appeared in Claritas’ fall 2023 Stages Issue

Sources

[1] Espada, Mariah. “The True Story Behind the FX Documentary Series ‘The Secrets of Hillsong.’” Time, May 19, 2023. https://time.com/6281339/secrets-of-hillsong-true-story/. 

[2] Brooks, David. “The Dissenters Trying to Save Evangelicalism From Itself.” The New York Times, February 4, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/opinion/evangelicalism-division-renewal.html. 

[3] Galatians 5:22 (ESV)

[4] for KING & COUNTRY. By Our Love. 

[5] Moore, Russell. “Losing Our Religion.” Russell Moore, April 15, 2021. https://www.russellmoore.com/2021/04/15/losing-our-religion/.  

[6] Romans 8:18 (ESV)

[7] Chesterton, G.K, Orthodoxy, 1908. 

[8] Gladwell, Malcolm. David and Goliath, 2013. 

[9] 1 Corinthians 12:26 (NIV)

[10] 1 Peter 2:5 (ESV)