Should we ‘forget church, and just look at Jesus’?

In evangelism Christians have an incredible asset which too many think is a liability: the church.

Last month we considered the advertising campaign ‘He Gets Us’, and its tendency to pit a compassionate Jesus against His judgmental people. But it happens in personal conversations too. The failures of Christ’s people might come up, and the strong temptation can be to throw the church ‘under the bus’.

You know the kind of thing; somebody raises the subject of historical horrors (the Crusades, the Inquisition, Conquistadors), or institutional evils (child sexual abuse scandals and their cover-ups), or experiences closer to home (our friends’ own encounters with hypocritical Christians). There might simply be a vague feeling in the air – coming from your non-Christian friend, but maybe also from you! – that church is old-fashioned, or boring, or a cringe. In all these circumstances it is very common for the Christian to sharply distance themselves from the church: ‘Oh, that’s just churchianity. Nothing to do with Jesus. Forget the church. Look at Jesus.’