Church Is Nice and Helpful..... But.....

"I’ll warn you that this will not be easy. All of us can point to wonderful, even lifechanging moments, that organized religion has provided for us. Who doesn’t enjoy the aesthetics of a beautiful worship service? Who has not been enlightened by the teaching of God’s Word? Who doesn’t have friends there whom we enjoy? No, church life today is not all bad, and that’s what makes it difficult to recognize its deficiencies. But the larger question must still be asked: Does it lead us to the fullness of an intimate friendship with Jesus? and if not, why not?....
Such talk is not any more popular in our day than it was in Luthers. His contemporaries thought he wanted to destroy the church, when his motives were quite the opposite. He offered the church healing and spoke out not because he loved it less, but because he loved it more than did the others of his day, who cared less what God wanted than what they did." (Wayne Jacobsen. The Naked Church)