The Church and the Golf Ball

Here's an old post from September 2005. I thought about it today while watching the Masters.

Question: What has so many imperfections that, as a result, it is perfect? Maybe the church can be compared to a golf ball. A ball with one dimple, i.e., imperfection, makes it worthless. A ball full of imperfections helps it fly straight and true. (Assuming that the person striking the ball is any good!) The church, when full of imperfections, is perfect. It is the way God designed it.

It is generally agreed upon that there is no such thing as a perfect church. When Christian leaders define the perfect church they go to Acts 2, especially vv. 42ff. In this passage, we read about the earliest Christians studying and learning together, worshiping corporately, sharing meals and common physical needs. There was harmony, unity, love, and apparent heaven on earth.

But not far into this model of perfection do we discover it’s fallacies. By the time we get to Acts 5, we read that Ananias and Sapphira deceived their perfect spiritual family. Acts 6 introduced the first formal complaints against church leaders. Partners in the faith were being overlooked. Why is it that when we read Acts 2 we forget that the people in the early church in Jerusalem were sinners just like us?

The perfect church, as we define it, was not full of perfect people. Yet, in God’s eyes, it was perfect. It was perfect because it was full of imperfect people. It was perfect because it included those who had fallen but on their way down they grasped God’s perfect solution, Jesus. It was perfect because when God created it he most likely responded like he did after his creation in Genesis. It was good. God created the Church. When God creates something, it is good. The Church is good. Yes, it is perfect.

How can the Church be perfect when it is filled with imperfect people? Who else is going to fill it? If the Church is created for mankind it must be occupied by people who are prone to sin. There are no other people available. We are sinners. We are born sinners. We will die sinners. This is a fact of the Christian life. However, God’s grace has been revealed to us in Christ so that he overlooks our sin and sees us as righteous (2 Cor. 5:21). When God looks at a follower of Christ, he sees a perfect, forgiven sinner. When God looks at a church full of his followers, he sees perfect, forgiven followers of Christ. God sees perfect people in his perfect church.