"The church is a hospital for sinners not a club for saints!"

Have you heard this statement? It's often part of a disagreement about the nature and role of the local church. It's often stated by a person that is legitimately frustrated with the in-grown, self-serving church models that have spread across the United States. The frustration is valid, but the conclusion is not.

The church is most certainly not a club for saints. It sounds so ridiculous that you would never even think it's possible, yet there are churches that function very much like closed clubs.

However, the church is also not a hospital for sinners. Both of these ideas; that the church is either a club for saints or a hospital for sinners, reveal a fundamental flaw in how we understand the church. Why is the Western church so obsessed with extra-biblical metaphors and terminology that contradict Biblical metaphors and terminology? It is clearly stated in scripture that the church is the Body OF Jesus and a Bride FOR Jesus.

Here's the bottom line, the church doesn't exist primarily for PEOPLE, the church exists for JESUS! Once we grasp that foundational truth about the nature of the church, we stop having debates about hospitals and clubs. Every Bible-believing Christian has to settle that the church is a Body and Bride.

Most certainly you would prepare a hospital or club far differently than you would prepare a body or bride. Hospitals and clubs are impersonal, body and bride are deeply personal. Jesus is coming back for a bride, not even a hospital full of sinners and certainly not a club full of saints.

Understanding that the church exists for Jesus helps us decide how a church should function. While many churches are debating the desires of the church members verses the needs of the community, a church that exists for Jesus can give itself to the will of God and to pleasing Him.