I was reading an article from the H.E.B. Foundation Magazine Echoes, and I came across a description of a summer retreat led by Adam Neder. The retreat was titled “Faith in the Ruins.” A description of the retreat in the promotional material for it sums it up: “…as challenges multiply, as the church perfects the art of discrediting itself, as friends leave the faith, many Christians are feeling exhausted, disoriented, and discouraged. Some wonder how much longer they can stick with Christianity–or even if they want to.”

That’s where the 10 observations by Neder came in. I looked at them and thought I would do a series of prayer journals on the 10 observations the article mentioned Neder covered during the retreat.

#8. The Church’s credibility can only be harmed by the Church.

Dear God, what does a credible Church (capital C) or church (small c) look like? It’s probably easier to start with the small-c church and go from there.

I think a church with credibility starts with love. Loving others. While I think the Mormon church has a lot of theological problems that prevent me from worshipping you with them, I think they are excellent in their credibility. They do the work. They love. They visit. They follow up. They worship you. They serve. As a Church, they also seem to have a decent attitude towards political issues. For example, I was talking about the negotiable and non-negotiable things a few days ago and how most of the Church has made the negotiable things non-negotiable (healthcare, environment, etc.) and the non-negotiable things negotiable (personal discipleship, fruits of the Spirit, etc.). I think the Mormon church does this right. When I was in Utah a year ago, I noticed the Mormon church and the overall Utah society (which is predominantly Mormon) involved in things like easy and free COVID testing and touting environmental programs. They were also taking a stand on the issue of transgender men competing with biological women in athletic events and working against it. But they were doing it with credibility behind them.

Of course, small-c church is made up of individuals who need to have personal credibility. I cannot overlook that. I mentioned a couple of days ago the man who was great on Sunday but completely worldly Monday through Saturday. His lack of credibility reflected not only on his small-c church, but the capital-C Church as well.

So when people see churched individuals failing to meet your standards it impacts the church and the Church. If I talk to my coworkers about you but have no credibility, they will not only be turned off and offended by me, but they will likely think less of the local church and the global Church as well.

Father, Holy Spirit, I suppose that Neder’s observation is correct, but it’s also correct in most areas. People out there can try to tear me down, and it might be easier to do that effectively to an individual, but if there is credibility among a large swath of people who are part of a group, whether it is a religion, a political party, a nation, or even a service organization like Rotary, then it is harder to disparage it. But all of it starts with us as individuals. So help me. Help me to be exactly who you need me to be today so that your will might be done and your kingdom might come into the earth.

I pray this through the power of Jesus,

Amen