What does the view from the pew look like at your church? I recently saw a social media post asking the question “why don’t you go to church.” The answers that I saw were quite eye opening. Most of the people that responded to the post listed a lot of similar issues amongst themselves. It is eye opening to see hundreds of people from around the country and even the world, have similar experiences of church. Keep in mind that these people came from all different backgrounds socially, economically, and even attended different denominations. The one thing that topped the list of reasons why people quit going to church was hypocrisy.
These people’s view from the pew looked like a bunch of hypocrites saying one thing and doing another. The words didn’t match the actions, and these people simply had enough of the fake and misleading nonsense. Some people elaborated on their feelings of hypocrisy. One person said when they went to church on Sunday people acted differently than they did the rest of the week. Another person said that they have always been told that the Bible says one thing, but the same people preaching end up doing the opposite of what they say. Another person said they felt outcast by the people at the church for the way they looked, even though God is supposed to accept us as we are.
The hurt that is caused by people who proclaim to be Christians does significant damage to people who end up on the receiving end of the hypocrisy. Sometimes people don’t even know that they are being hypocrites. Other times pride steps in to squash humbleness and breeds hypocrites. Whatever the reason is, the behavior is repulsive to many people so much as to keep them from ever wanting to return to church. When someone gets hurts by these people, they often harbor resentment towards God. Instead of realizing that humans created the animosity, they end up blaming God for the actions of failed people.
The view from the pew is not the same for everyone.
The view from the pew does not look the same for everyone because we all have uniquely different experiences in our lives. When people put their trust in someone and are failed by them, they often disconnect as a natural response to the situation. Most people at their core avoid having confrontation with these individuals. The solution that most people see in these situations is to just stop attend church when hypocrisy is present. Some of the feelings get enlarged by a lack of understanding about what the Bible actually says. Other times people look for an excuse not to do something.
Being a welcoming church is very important when dealing with people that may have fragile feelings. I am not saying accepting sin, but simply not casting judgement on the individual. Our best testimony is not what we say, but the actions that we live out. When others see us live out the Gospel, they are drawn to the behavior more than if we speak the Gospel. When we live out the Gospel, almost always, we remove any direct or indirect hypocrisy from our lives. Sometimes saying the words sets too high of bar for us and others can have an unreasonable expectation of where the bar is set as well. By living out our testimony instead of being preachy, we show others that we walk the walk.
Talking the talk does not always hit the nail on the head. What I have learned by witnessing other people’s responses on social media is that Christian’s often get caught up in themselves and what they want. Again, this is mainly done through the words we speak. Next time you interact with anyone, focus on living out the Gospel. Our actions will catch the eye of many people that we are unaware of and show them that we live out the Gospel that we preach.