unfortunately, this is true

Leadership magazine cites how a man named Mark Russel spent a year interviewing people in his community who no longer attend or take part in a church.  He writes:

Most people left church not because they had a deep theological problem with something like the virgin birth or the resurrection of Christ.

They left because people in the church have the tendency to be small and mean and couldn’t deal honestly with their own sins or the sin of others. As one man put it, 'People in the church were more invested in the process of being right than in the process of being honest.'

Ouch.

Unfortunately, this is true.

And I'd like to do something about it.

Starting in me.

I'm going to try an experiment this week of speaking the truth in love, more than I think I already might.   Meaning, I won't be trying to water down awkward moments but will simply go for it.  And I will be asking others to speak some of that my way as well - including you.

It reminds me of something my wife once said.  When she was a camp counselor, the head of the camp told his staff that if they ever wanted to hear an honest summary of what he saw in them... potential as well as stuff they needed to work on, they could set up an appointment and have that conversation.

Not too many people took him up on it.

So let me know if you want to be a part of that experiment... or if we should avoid each other for the next week and pretend like we're being honest.