{"id":658,"date":"2013-11-20T06:55:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T11:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/?p=658"},"modified":"2013-11-20T07:23:24","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T12:23:24","slug":"hospital-or-hotel-what-is-the-church-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/11\/hospital-or-hotel-what-is-the-church-anymore.html","title":{"rendered":"Hospital or Hotel? What IS the Church, Anymore?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hospital\"<\/a>“If we devote ourselves to the effort to be real, the Universe in all its forms will find us, the way that wind finds leaves and waves find shore” – Mark Nepo.<\/p>\n

“The effort to be real…”<\/p>\n

That is my greatest ambition. Which is why I try very hard to write what’s in my heart, even if it is risky to express or painful to read. I want authenticity.<\/p>\n

It’s so much easier to hide, isn’t it? You cannot imagine how many of my minister friends write me or say to me in a whisper, “So much of what you say I agree with but…”<\/p>\n

And I know what’s coming next…<\/p>\n

“If I said the things you say, I’d be without a job.”<\/p>\n

And I want to say, “You think it has not been risky to me, or costly, to seek to be authentic…to be real?”<\/p>\n

It would be much safer to be silent…to pretend to be and believe something else…<\/p>\n

What should alarm all of us is that we have managed to create a Church where being authentic…being real…being yourself…is no longer an ambition to seek…a virtue to pursue…but an action that might just get you practically “excommunicated.”<\/p>\n

So why would anyone be surprised that those who long to be whole…who wish to become complete must leave the Church to find health? Instead of the Church being a fitness gym where you can stretch and struggle and work out and get into spiritual shape, go into almost any church today and what you find is fast food, cappuccino Christianity.<\/p>\n

Instead of hospital for sick souls, has the Church become a hotel for superficial saintliness?<\/p>\n

Oh sure, there are exceptions to this. So drop the desire to defend your Church. I love the Church, too. But, I love authenticity a hell-of-a-lot more.<\/p>\n

Shouldn’t we all?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If we devote ourselves to the effort to be real, the Universe in all its forms will find us, the way that wind finds leaves and waves find shore” – Mark Nepo. “The effort to be real…” That is my greatest ambition. Which is why I try very hard to write what’s in my heart,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1190],"tags":[1197,1195,1193,756,1196,1194,1191,1192,1198,154],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-2","tag-a-hospital-for-sick-souls","tag-authenticity","tag-be-real","tag-church","tag-defend-the-church","tag-effort-to-be-real","tag-hospital","tag-hotel","tag-hotel-for-superficial-saintliness","tag-universe"],"yoast_head":"\nHospital or Hotel? What IS the Church, Anymore? - Your Best Life Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/11\/hospital-or-hotel-what-is-the-church-anymore.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hospital or Hotel? What IS the Church, Anymore? - Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“If we devote ourselves to the effort to be real, the Universe in all its forms will find us, the way that wind finds leaves and waves find shore” – Mark Nepo. “The effort to be real…” That is my greatest ambition. 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