A funny thing happened a few years ago. I always assumed that people who complain about church have a bad attitude. One day, I began to listen to complainers. To be sure, some do have bad attitudes. Others, though, are what I would call redemptively discontent.

The discontent part comes easily. Anyone who has been in church for any time knows that churches can be good, but they can also be terrible: bad sermons, cranky Christians, ungodly pastors, and personality conflicts. Until I listened to the complainers, this was my only category of discontent with the church.

I now realize there is a second category: those who are redemptively discontent. People in this category experience discontent at a deeper level. They have grown weary of Christian subculture, a McDonaldized approach to spirituality, easy answers, formulaic sermons, Christian celebrities, pragmatism, marketing, and programs that promise more than they deliver, to name a few.

It’s easy to dismiss this group. Some are reactionary and a little, well, edgy. But I sense something different in them. They are far from perfect, but they love the church. They speak and act not because they want to abandon the church, but because they want the church to be transformed.

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