WTH are These Churches Teaching?

“But, I sin all the time and I can’t seem to stop myself!”
“I have never been so disinterested in the Christian life as I am now. I love my sin too much. I still believe in Jesus, and I want to follow God, but I just can’t seem to give up these things I love.”

     I have heard nearly the same thing from two different friends in the last week. Both are churchgoing Christians. Both sincerely want to grow in their faith and practice. Both are struggling. And neither feels like they are getting the answers they need from their churches, instead feeling so guilty about their mistakes and errors that they don’t know what to do.
     What the hell are these churches teaching? How strong does my language have to be before it approximates the sheer incredulity, outrage, and near despair that these two dear ones aren’t being given the basic tools and teaching by their churches to understand what is happening and to be able to work through it and continue in their discipleship without this pitfall?
     What is even worse is that it’s not just these churches. Churches in general aren’t discipling their members to actually walk as Jesus walked, and to follow His path. And it’s not really the pastors’ fault per se either. I read an article a few years ago where a survey was taken of seminary students of what the one thing they wished the seminary had covered. It wasn’t church history, theology, biblical languages, or even how to run a non-profit. The one thing seminarians wished the seminary had taught, or taught better, was how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
     Think about that fact. Ponder it for just a few minutes. The one thing pastors are responsible to not only be, but to teach others to be, is not covered in seminary according to most seminarians surveyed. And so these nascent pastors are sent out to teach people to do something they themselves don’t know how to do. They are left to their own devices to discover the Way, and many never do being so bogged down in the peripherals, doctrines, and trappings of being a pastor that they completely miss what it’s all about to begin with. And then they “fall,” “burn out,” and are rendered otherwise visibly disqualified for their position. As one friend put it, “But preachers aren’t supposed to sin, and I sin all the time!” The one thing that truly makes a person a “Christian” by the ancient and Biblical definition of the word, being a disciple of Jesus Christ, is not taught in seminaries.
     Where the forgiveness of “sin” is concerned, I’ll be succinct as I’ve written so copiously about this subject that I have literally filled books with it. Just admit it, confess it, and turn around. Every sin and blasphemy will be let go by God to human beings except one, and that one is because God is not going to force anyone to open their eyes and come to Him. Deliberate rejection and turning away from Him is the only thing He can’t let go of, because it’s not His to let go. It’s that person’s.
     Where the inability to stop sinning is concerned, I’ll try and be succinct here as well and for the same reasons. You’re human. Every human being has a malfunction in their brains which affects every thought, word, action, and intention. You literally cannot stop “sinning” as long as your responses originate with your own brain. This is why Jesus Christ died for us, so that we would be joined as one with Him, so that through voluntary submission to the Spirit of Christ He then would become the source of our words and actions. And if He is the source of our words and actions, then we literally cannot “sin” because our words and actions will originate with God Himself, in whom there is no “sin,” or darkness of any kind. This is what John was talking about in his first letter when he says, “That which is born of God does not sin.” This is our salvation in Jesus Christ.
     What is the point of churches or church structures that don’t actually teach people how to be disciples? What is the point of churches or church structures that weigh people down with guilt because of something they themselves cannot control, and then don’t teach them how to be free of it? There’s a reason why churches are dying and people are walking away. They’ve had enough B.S. They’ve had enough of churches that talk a lot about Jesus, but never reveal Him or demonstrate Him, much less teach anyone else how to do it.
     Yes, I’m ranting. More than this, it’s the Spirit of Christ ranting through me. I know it is. Do you even know how much of an outrage it feels like to have your name and image and very words thrown all over the place by people that don’t just not have a clue about what they’re doing, but are violating those very words and teaching others to do the same? The prophets in the Old Testament are explicit in how God felt about it when Judah did it.
     To all those who are truly sincere in your desire to follow what Jesus Christ taught, and to know Him better, know this, you are loved. You are treasured. Your errors and mistakes aren’t even on His radar. He rejoices, He is overjoyed with any progress you make, no matter how small. Just keep going. Recognize where you went wrong, and turn back to Him. Learn from it, and keep going. He’s waiting for you at the finish line.