Church through the eyes of an alcoholic
Philip Yancey in his book “I Was Just Wondering” tells the story of attending an AA meeting with a friend (“The Midnight Church” p41-45) for whom attending AA meetings has replaced attending a more traditional church meeting. Yancey writes “The church – many steeples loom within sight of the building where AA meets - seems irrelevant, vapid and gutless to him.” (p43)
Later Yancey asks his friend to name the one quality missing in the local church that AA had somehow provided. “He stared at his cup of coffee for a long time, watching it go cold. I expected to hear a word like love or acceptance or, knowing him, perhaps anti-institutionalism. Instead, he said softly this one word: dependency.”
“None of us can make it on our own – isn’t that why Jesus came?” he explained. “Yet most church people give off a self-satisfied air of piety or superiority. I don’t sense them consciously leaning on God or each other. Their lives appear to be in order. An alcoholic who goes to church feels inferior and incomplete.” (p45)
No wonder who are failing to reach a post-modern generation who value authenticity, “being real” and openness and community above all. When the church fails to be who God has called it out to be, we force those who are hungering and thirsting to gorge themselves on the pseudo-relationships provided by Facebook, reality TV and blogging communities (a delicious irony I know!)
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