A Letter to a Searcher who gave up on the Church because of Christians

Here is a letter I wrote to someone who claims they are no longer Christian because of Christians. I post it here in case it helps anyone else going through the same struggle. I assume I will also be critiqued by those who disagree with my approach. That is fine because I hope it will make my approach better.

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Hi #######.

I originally did not respond when I read your note because I figured others would say the same thing. I see that they have not. Some have been harsh. I am sorry for that.

I also experienced the same thing as you explain in your post. I gave up Christianity because of the people in the church and began a period of searching. The thing I noticed near the end (or should I say near the beginning) of the search was that I was searching for the truth with the rule that the truth could not be Christianity. Once I gave that rule up, I came back to Christianity but not the institutional church. That does not mean I gave up on Christ's Church, and I still find myself currently in an institutional church.

Your experience may differ as you might not have excluded Christianity from your searches. I think the biggest obstacle for most Christians is overcoming what they were shown to be Christianity by their local church. So often it is not about love, but about so many other things. I am sure you know that Scripture teaches that all of the other things are worthless if they do not lead us to love. Christianity is beautiful in that way.

Christianity, pure and in its true form, is amazing. It just baffles me that it is somewhat difficult to find people, especially groups of people, living it out. I am not saying that all of those wallowing in an ineffective Christianity are not saved because part of true Christianity is an understanding of grace and sharing that grace with others. I find myself wallowing in ineffective Christianity far too often. Thankfully there is grace.

Anyway, I wanted to pass along a passage that I found encouraging during that period of time. It was from Isaiah 5. In it God is stating that he has tried everything to make his people, Israel, the people he intended for them to be. But they still were not that people. God then tells others to judge him by who he is and not by those who claim to follow him.

1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.

2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

3 "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?

5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.

6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it."

7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Personally, I would like to be a person that God could say, "Look at him and see me." I might not be there yet, but that is what I strive for. Grace covers my failings.

We need to be lifetime seekers of truth, and I admire you for that. I believe firmly in Jesus' teaching that if we seek, we will find. So many people just take what is spoon-fed them. Here's to seeking.

With Blessings,
Regan