Disappointments

No matter what church you attend you will eventually find quarrelsome, contrary, controlling people who will eventually drive you out of the church, and if you allow it, drive you away from your faith. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the church is the place where our dreams are shattered - he's right. New believers often enter the church expecting to find a little bit of heaven on earth. We all think and hope and expect that our brothers and sisters in Christ will treat us better than the people in the world. But sooner or later we discover that the saints are not always saintly, and the people of God are not always godly. Sometimes they can be cantankerous, mean-spirited, unkind, and sometimes downright cruel. The church - local and universal - routinely disappoints us. When that happens, our faith is shattered and sometimes our hope is destroyed. It takes a lot of courage to face the imperfect people of the 'church,' some of whom say and do outrageous things, and disappoint us again and again, and to keep believing deep in your soul and to stay with this movement called the 'Christian Church.'
Ray Pritchard http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/pritchard/11635791/