church inc.

I'm finding myself frustrated by the church lately.

not the capital c Church, the collective whole of those who believe in and follow Christ, but the little c church. The organizational, business-minded church.

disclaimer, this is not a blanket criticism of all churches, this is a specific incident and specific church, though I'm sure it's not exclusive.

What is the church supposed to be? a lot of times when I think of the church, I think of Acts 2: 42-47

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Are there churches that exist like that? Forget on a church-wide level, are there even small groups like that? I don't know anyone that does that.

Recently, a couple I am friends with got burned by the church I grew up in. I won't go into the details, but basically there were some mistakes made along the lines of policy and protocol in asking their friends (who were also in the congregation) for financial help to adopt a child from the Congo. They were told they have to give back all the money they had gotten, and first go through official channels before they could ask their friends for money.

While I agree that things could have been done differently in asking for the money, nothing they did justified the response from the church, unless one of the people making these decisions legitimately thought they were trying to con their friends out of money.

Now, obviously I'm going to be biased in this; these are friends of mine whom I love and care about, but since when did the church become run like a business and not the organization which is supposed to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth? When did it become an organization which became concerned more with it's legal liability than understanding and grace?

Maybe this is just me ranting about this particular incident, but does the church in America seem this way to anyone else? Something that functions as a business first and a dispenser of teaching, grace and community second.

Which leads me to the larger question of what should the church look like as an organization?

Whatever it is, if it is without Love, it is nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.