Honesty

I have discovered many times in the church we are more concerned with being right at the expense of being honest. Being honest means we have to be vulnerable and our culture looks down on the vulnerable as weak. We can be right without being in community (at least that is what we are led to believe) but honesty requires relationship. If you go back to Genesis you will discover that the first issue that had to be overcome was not sin but isolation. So instead of creating a community of openness and vulnerability we have created a subculture of concealing our true selves. Pastors are experts at hiding. We have the language, role, and title that can isolate and conceal us. How do we create a community that is more interested in honesty than the fact that they are getting it right all the time? How do we convince people that believing is conditioned by belonging? How do we educate our pastors by telling them that spirituality is restricted by failing to be honest and real in community? I was just thinking on that today.