I have to admit that though I love being part of the Seventh-day Adventist movement, any just-out-of-the-box naivete that I used to have about the church has lost its sheen. The foundation of the church is Jesus, but the building blocks are people (1 Peter 2:4,5) and those are pretty fallible building blocks.

But it's strange how we want "the church" to be patient with believers, we want "them" to recognize that people aren't instantly perfected when they join our fellowship, but then we expect "the church" to be pretty close to perfect all the time. But isn't the church just people like us? --people struggling to be faithful, trying to find the middle line, pressing on toward the Kingdom but stumbling a bit along the way? If that's not the church, then what is?

moves and removes