Here Comes the Bride... of CHRIST!

Hypocritical. Rude. Apathetic. Lazy. Weird.

These are all words that I've heard Christians use (ok, I've probably used them myself...) to describe the Church. When it comes to spotting ways that the church is not very much like it's founder, we're all experts. "The church needs to focus more on missions" "the church doesn't evangelize enough" "the church uses it's money unwisely" "the church is ineffective"
Everybody has their one thing that the church is doing wrong. And honestly, I had one too, until recently when God showed me how prideful I was.
You see, I thought, "If the church would just focus more on God they'd be so much more effective." But did you catch what pronoun I just used? "they" But since when is church anyone other than it's body of believers of which I am a part? Therefore, am I not a very player in the church that I am criticizing? So shouldn't the accusation go more like this, "If I would just focus more on God I would be so much more effective"?
I started to realize that every time I thought the church needed to do something, I should first ask myself, "What am I, as the church, doing?" We cannot disassociate ourselves from the very body of the church when we want to criticize but still receive the prize of being the Bride of Christ.
You see, we're not all separate little Christians who can look at each other and say, "I wish you'd do that better." We're all together being the body saying, "I'm going to do better and encourage you to follow me as I follow Christ" knowing that since we're all connected, if I'm doing better in Christ then the whole body is doing better.
We are the Church. You are my brothers and sisters in Christ. And while I may not agree with what you're doing right now, I need to trust that God is doing a work in and through you and pray he does the same for me. I cannot criticize the church down the road for something and not be criticizing myself because I am a part of the Church of Christ, and I'm connected to the body down the street and the body meeting in Asia in an underground church.
When we criticize the church we are criticizing the very bride of Jesus Christ. While I'll be the first to admit that the church is not perfect and could always be doing something better, we must realize that the church is what God's heart is for. He designed it to glorify Him and to bring the world to his Kingdom. God loves the church and so should I.

To sum it all up, listen to Lecrae say it all better than I did:

The Bride

post script- Do not take this the wrong way. I in no way mean there should be no reflection on how the church could do better, by all means find ways that we can do church better. I simply mean discouragement, rudeness, and anger towards the church should be eliminated and replaced with LOVE which includes discipline at times and speaking the truth in love.