Top ten

If I had a “top ten” list of reasons that people give me as to why they are turned off by religion, number one would be that there are too many hypocrites inside our churches.


Hmmm A hypocrite would be defined as somebody who pretends to have admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings but behaves otherwise. Indian philosopher and non-violent protester Mahatma Gandhi summed up the root of this problem nicely when he wrote: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

When I led our sales department I realized that it was important not to just make a sale, but to ensure that AFTER the sale the new customer was fully satisfied with our products and service. In sales there is no better sales tool than a good reference and a bad reference can kill a potential new sale faster than lightning moving across the sky.

In order to obtain satisfaction one has to fully meet the customer’s “expectations”. Any salesman that would oversell our products by telling a potential customer that our software would do everything under the sun including get up every morning, fix their coffee, and serve it to them with a smile might make an initial sale and glean some short term advantage, but long term they would inflict irreparable harm upon our company. They did our company a huge disservice with such behavior.

I told our sales team to make sure that every potential customer understood that our products and customer service people were excellent, but not “perfect”. I wanted our customers to know that after all, we were merely imperfect human beings, and not perfect software Gods. I told them, “ALWAYS set realistic expectations!”

I told them to readily admit that on occasion some knucklehead in our employ might make a mistake in handling their customer service call and even possibly be rude to them. And on rare occasion our excellent software, (which contains some 5 million lines of code), might not always perform as intended, but they could be assured that as soon as we discovered those mistakes, we would make every effort under the sun to make it right and do so as expeditiously as humanly possible. That knucklehead would be packing his or her bags the moment I found about them being rude to one of my valued customers, and likewise any software bugs would be squashed and repaired as fast as humanly possible.

So with all of that said when you invite people to church, set realistic expectations. I like what the church that I attend when I winter in the Florida Keys states in the church bulletin: “The Key Largo Baptist Church is a group of imperfect people who have been brought together by the grace of God to worship Him, to be reminded of His forgiveness and to find out what He wants us to do in this world”

All churches are full of “imperfect” people who need forgiveness, and to expect anything else is a precursor to a fall. I contend that church is precisely the place hypocrites and other sinners need to be. Just like the sick need to be in a hospital, sinners need to be in church. To be appalled at finding a church that has a sinner in the pulpit, choir, usher pool, deacons, or pews, would be like being appalled when they find a criminal in a jail.

Today is your Gandhi quote day. Here is another one, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

He must have been describing Jesus. Jesus forgives the sin of hypocrisy. No doubt He dislikes the sin, but He loves the sinner with all of His heart. In fact He died on a cross for all of us who on occasion commit this sin and others…

We should pleasantly surprise those with similar views to Gandhi and be more like our Christ in avoiding engaging in hypocrisy and yet forgiving those who do. Christ too often gets the blame for poor Christian behavior. I know I let Him down on far too many occasions and it grieves me greatly. I want to praise Him and not misrepresent Him.

Matt. 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.