Why does church do such a good job of being everything we don't want it to be?

I don't know about you, but I hear a lot of opinions on church. Everyone is an expert about it - and every 'expert' opinion is nearly always critical.

This is a good thing I think - because without a sense of disappointment in the establishment, the establishment can lose a sharpness or a prophetic edge. Of course it must be an objective disappointment - there has to be something good about church.

I used to go to a church which I loved. One which I had a tremendous commitment to as this was the one I first went to when I came to faith. My family went there before me, my grand dad, his dad - that sort of thing. I served on the vestry. I volunteered with the youth organisations. I gave a lot because I really felt wanted.

This church experience laid the foundation for me to explore youth work as a vocation.

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You know that saying which goes something like 'church is not the building - it's the people'?

I know now I loved my church because of the people in it, no other reason. That unique make up of people was what I loved - not the location, the vision, the ethos. Those people welcomed me. They cared for me, they encouraged me. They prayed for me.

Today those people have changed - some dead, some moved on, some left the church completely. Some are still there, but they are in the minority. That church is no longer the place I remember it to be.

Time to move on from the memories and be to others what those people were to me. To try to help create those memories for someone new.

But it won't be with my old church.