Of the church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, we should come to expect everything and nothing: everything because it is Christ’s body on earth and nothing because, even so, it is composed of broken, sinful people.
For all that brokenness, the church is the institutional context in which we come to understand God, ourselves, and the world. But it is not the only institution that shapes us—we are shaped too by marriage, family, our local communities, state and national citizenships, schools, professions, summer camps, athletics, and more. By the same token, the church is not the only institution that disappoints us.
At their best, all these institutions can have lasting, meaningful influence on their members. They can call us to a higher standard of character and orient our lives. But the flip side of that kind of investment is that when things go wrong, the fallout can be immense.
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