Fixing bad church culture — part 1

How does your church deal with sin and sinners?

We all can sense parts of our church culture that needs changing, things that don’t align with what we read in the scripture or line up with how God directly deals with us. But to change these things we have to get to the spiritual root of what’s underneath them — and that can be hard to pinpoint at times. For a simple definition, bad church culture is something that’s developed in a group when what’s preached and lived is out of sync with what Christ taught and practiced. Let’s unpack what’s behind some of these things to understand how they can be changed, starting with how your church deal with sin and sinners. There is one simple parable Christ gave us that defines which direction a church will go on this subject:

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9–14 (NKJV)