A Plea to the Disillusioned

To those of you with your hands on the evangelical doorknob, on your way out the door for the last time: please wait a moment longer; please listen to one more plea before you leave.

To those of you already outside, those who have turned your backs for what you decided was forever: please return for a moment; please come back and listen to one more plea before it is too late.

And to those of you already far away, already shaking our dust from your feet: please, pause a moment and incline your ear; please listen to one more plea before you continue on your way.

I know you are hurting. I feel your pain – and even if I feel one small fraction of what you feel, I am devastated, ravaged by it, and cannot imagine feeling anything close to the pain you feel. It would wither me completely. But please, wait and listen, just for a moment.

We need you to stay. I need you to stay. Those of us who are working hard to change our direction, to change our priorities, to make ourselves look more like Christ need you to stay. You, who see the problems and care enough to come up with solutions – we need you.

Because if you all leave – if we all leave, we who see the flaws in the system – she will never become what she can be. She will never change, never grow, never blossom. And the Universal Church will suffer for it. Because we are one unit. There is only one Church – one new wineskin, containing one outpouring of wine. There will be no casting it off and seeking another. That's been done, once for all, and it is this one Church that will suffer from your departure.

It's not that the evangelical church and the Church are one and the same, but that the evangelical church is a part of the Church. Any damage done to evangelicalism, and any misguided patterns she upholds, hinder the Church as a whole.

Your departure, then, does no service to the Church, does not benefit her King. It only strengthens the resolve of the evangelical church to remain as it always has been.

And perhaps you have been calling out for change for years, seeing no results, and cannot endure another moment of failure. I beg you, stay and wait.

Perhaps she has burned you too many times and you have no flesh that remains un-singed. I plead with you, remain.

Do not stay for my sake. Do not stay – or leave – merely for your own. Do not let guilt keep you here, or fear, or comfort. Remain for the Church and for her King.

If you have to leave, we will come to understand. If your King is calling you elsewhere, to use your passion and your desire to change other corners of His Church, so be it. We will endeavor to carry on without your gifts.

But if you're willing to reconsider, if you're willing to forgive us and join me in hoping for improvement, let the words of C.S. Lewis encourage you as they encourage me:

"A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble – because the Christ-life is inside him." (Mere Christianity)

Oh how much truer that is for the Body of believers – a conglomeration of souls filled with the Christ-life, greater than the sum of the parts. We can repair ourselves, not because we are reparable, or because we are great fixers, but because – no matter how broken and lost we have become – we will not be abandoned by our King. 

 Indeed, it is this King – He who pulled me from the mire and removed from me all guilt for my sin – who is daily sanctifying His Church. I strive to believe He will repair us – for that is what He does with broken things.