The Church: To Heal or To Hurt

Well, this week was back to school after spring break but thankfully we were provided with an easy transition back to school in the form of early dismissal every day but Friday. These last few hours without the children left me with some quiet, alone time to think through some things that have been troubling my heart these last few months.
I have really been struggling with church, not the fact of going to church, but really why is there a church. I think many people in my generation are looking for so much more than what the church today looks like. I think many of us want a transparent community of people to worship with, to grow with, to pray with, to love others with and to draw others to Christ with. Instead many of us find ourselves hurt by the church, isolated from and within the church and constantly being frustrated. Many of us are seeing the church as more of a business than a place of love.
For example, I have a dear young friend in Uganda. He is an AIDS orphan and was on the streets. A church took him in as a teenager. They housed him, provided food and schooling for him and gave him hope. This year was his first year in university. During the fall semester, right before finals, the church told him that they would no longer be helping him. Their reason was that it was easier to get money to help young children. People would give more money if the church were helping cute little kids. My friend now has no where to live and is finding himself searching for a reason to have hope again. I am so very thankful that one thing he did gain in his years under the church's care is his steadfast love for Christ. That is all that keeps him going. I talked to him briefly this past weekend. He is not in school this semester and is just scraping by. He is in this predicament, not because of anything he did wrong, but because it was better business to help little children.
After all my hours of thinking this week, I still have no conclusion. I just pray that this generation will continue to strive to be a generation that will live our lives as a representation of Christ's love, that we will be the church regardless of what boundaries the physical church walls try to put around us.