Frequent Outbreaks of Warts

In the climactic scene from my favorite movie in the genre,Western Comedy, the hero and the bad guy are in a fierce gunfight. The hero is such a bad shot that the bad guy is cleaning his fingernails while the hero wildly fires dozens of rounds and finally he asks the hero, "How'd you live this long?"

Given all the criticism the church endures, you do this wrong, you alienate believers and non-believers, church attendance is declining, the church has become irrelevant, our young people are deserting us, services are boring, you preach too much heaven and not enough hell, and on and on and on, it seems a miracle we've made it this long. My main concern with criticism of the church isn't the criticism, if a church stumbles or forgets to take frequent spiritual inventory of itself, it merits rebuking. What troubles me is the attitude of so many of the criticizers that they have a brand new solution to what ails us. Do this church thing different (my way) and all our problems will melt away, the future hangs in the balance if we don't start getting stuff right.

Really though, isn't it possible that there's nothing new here? Since men first crept out of the upper room and proceeded to change the world there's been criticism, mostly because men get themselves in jams all the time. But the reality that I see is a church more along the lines of a richly woven tapestry rather than a simple, plain sheet, a church that begs the question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?" The world is a better place because of the church despite of it's frequent outbreaks of warts. And while there's always a need for self-examination and improvement there's also a reason Jesus chose us.