I do believe that the local church is the hope of the world. After all, that is why God sent His Son, to redeem us to Himself and perpetuate that relationship over and over, making disciples of Him. But, let's redefine church, is it a place for a bunch of people who are in this spiritual journey together come and get "fed"? Is it four walls? Is it a place to get or give? Or is it a bunch of messed up people struggling to know Him better and wherever they are in life, job, relationship with others, just abiding in Christ and saying, "Surprise me, God!" and then responding as He would have us respond in love and truth? It doesn't have to have a program name to it or be represented by a parachurch or church name? Meeting with delinquents and continuing to pour into them to become disciples I find that they talk to me a lot about their "doing" and I try to talk with them about their "being". It is good to pray (they always say every night), it is good to go to church (four walled building), it is good to read the Bible, but all of that is semantics if Jesus does not transform our moment by moment thoughts, words, and actions so that we exude the very spirit of Christ with people! May we work on BEING more than DOING and out of BEING we will be THE church! Some of my fellow colleagues joke with me about what I say I do now, I've been released from organized religion to be a youth pastor to THE church not just a youth pastor at A church. The above picture is a skyline of Denver, a city where I'm serving as a youth pastor and currently serving as a chaplain with Denver Area Youth for Christ and starting up Wilderness Experiential Ministry! The church IS the hope of the world, be a part of the solution, not part of the problem!