Making Things Complicated

I was at the tag agency this last weekend. And if you've ever been to one of these you'll probably hear conversations that go something like this...

Man: But I thought I needed to go here...

Woman behind desk: You do. But first you need a 936.

Man: A what?

Woman behind desk: A 936. A form you need to get from the county assessors office.

Man: I can't get that here?

Woman behind the desk: No. Go to the county assessor's office, get the form, and then come and pay your taxes. Have a nice day!

This is just one of the many kinds of conversations I heard.

I thought...

When did our government get so complicated?

There's a form for this, a tax for that, you need this, have to go to another place for that. It's exhausting. And it some ways utterly ridiculous. We've made things that used to be simple, complicated.

I think we do the same thing sometimes in the church.

We think we need to follow this rule or have certain things that will make us right with God. We complicate the simplicity of the Gospel with our man made rules and regulations. Now I'm not saying throw out Biblical standards clearly outlined in the Bible, but we don't need to add our own "rules" that complicate the message of Jesus.

What do you think? What ways do you think the church has complicated the Gospel message?