A lot of the world—both inside and outside the church—is watching the crisis that is unfolding as yet another leader of a Christian institution falls (and hard).

Since this one hits close to home for me, some people are asking why I stay—in the faith and in the church.

First, my faith is not in man, but in Jesus Christ, Lord of the universe and savior of humankind—the way, the truth, and the life, as revealed in divine scripture, by natural revelation, and by the testimony of a great cloud of witnesses (eye witnesses, too, by the way).

I tried years and years ago to think and live my way past the Christian faith (as many do). It just isn’t going to happen.

I believe.

And because I believe—and it’s all or nothing or what’s the point?—I aim not to pick and choose.

Christ incarnate and Christ as bridegroom of his bride the church offers the model we are to follow. He shows that we were made for community, made for divine union.

We are a body. We need one another. Maybe I don’t feel like I need the church sometimes, but I do. And the church needs me, too.

And Christian institutions are not the church, but they are part of the church, part of the body.

We must love the body as Christ loves his bride.

I will say that for me (let alone for so many others), it has been a few straight years of shock and hurt and pain. (Let’s call it getting hit by a bus, shall we?)

But in it I see God at work more clearly, and by his grace, I am more committed to his bride—the body—than ever.

I thought I was done but not quite:

Let us love one another enough to hold one another accountable in love. Let us love God’s laws and ways enough to speak up when they are violated and not cover up, deny, or minimize truth.

The only thing worse than being chastened is not being chastened.

(That last is a line I wrote in On Reading Well.)