I work in a church as a youth pastor and I'll be the first to admit, it sucks. I've been torn down by church members, chewed out by the senior pastor, and treated like my 4 year degree was bull crap. What we've created as "church" is not biblical. It's not wrong, it's just not biblical. A good book on this is "Pagan Christianity" which discusses where a lot of things churches do as norm but were actually adopted from the pagan Roman faith. However, with that said, faith keeps me going. I put aside all the people that treat me terribly because I'm not appealing to the "business" they pay/tithe to. I ignore the fact that my senior pastor is threatened whenever I do something well because he isn't getting credit. The reason is simple: there's a whole lot of things going on in the world and I need to show love towards that. It's a sacrificial love. That means I have to give something up in order to be like Christ. I put aside my self and listen to some teen babel on about why they hate their parents. I listen when someone hurts. I advocate for those with no voice in the church because the head committee wants to cut their funding for their own agendas. That's sacrificial love. That's what a group of people meeting together needs to share while they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. That's true church.
