The Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret

My mentor, Rev. Dr. Robert R. McGruther taught me many things, not the least of which was a love of the line "save us from weak resignation" from the hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory".  There has been a flurry of words recently around the question "Why Church?".  The numbers over the years tell the tale.  People are leaving the church.  Why are they leaving?  What can the church do to transform the way it goes about its work to stem this tide of folks leaving.
Probably lots of stuff.  Communicate good news more regularly and effectively.  Be more open, inviting and welcoming.  Feel less clubby.  Love everyone.  Serve.  Lots of stuff.  One thing I'm thinking we should not try is "weak resignation".  In reading some of the "Why Church?" pieces I find myself thinking that if what I was reading was what church was I wouldn't want any part of it either.
Let's start here.  Imagine that a store has a complaint box.  The store is not perfect, far from it, but it's hanging in, doing some things better than others.  Now let assume we want to work on the less than perfect part of the store in order to work at upgrading from hanging in - a good goal.  I am thinking that the way to do that would not be to expect a clear picture of what needs to be done by going through the complaint box.  Should we take a look at the complaint box, yes.  But should we build our strategy for where we should be going forward by allowing the complaint box to paint the picture of who we are in the present.  No.  Because it's not even close to an accurate picture.
Building the future by placing complete trust in the complaint box leads to "weak resignation".  It leads to the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret.  The church needs to reflect and it needs to do better and it needs to take into account the places where we've gotten it wrong in the past.  But who wants to hook up with the beacon of light, or rather the quickly fading battery powered flashlight of the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret?  What do we have to offer?  "Hey, we are so sorry in so many ways."  Do we need to say those words.  At times, absolutely.  Should they be our go to invitation or welcome message?  I think we can do better.  If you have the complete Winnie the Pooh gang at your disposal are you going to always run Eeyore out first.  He may be perfect some of the time, but on occasion Tigger may not be a bad choice.
Why church?  Because it is a place where God is not a complimentary bit of scenery.  Because it is the living, breathing, acting, redeeming, transforming, life giving body of Christ.  Because people care about each other.  Because it's an excellent place to live through hurt and pain.  Because it's better when you are here.
Why church?  In this one instance, let's try over-promising and then  live towards it.  Because if we are right about this Kingdom of God thing, we cannot over-promise.  We can mess up, get it wrong, fail spectacularly at times, true.  But we cannot over-promise.  Save us from weak resignation and from dragging around the standard of the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret.