Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Church “Crisis” and what we can do about it: Learning to Love the Church.

In the first article in this series entitled “The Church “Crisis” and what we can do about it,” I gave a brief definition of this crisis as the steady decline in church attendance since the 1960s and concluded that the key to reverse this trend is to build the church through building relationships.  In the second article, I pointed out that building the church is building the Kingdom of God, and the very first step in Kingdom building is to align our intentions with the intentions of Jesus, which are grounded in pure love.  In this third article, I am going to unpack the idea of grounding ourselves in the pure love of Jesus by exploring how Jesus loves. 
I want you to get out your Bible and read the following scriptures to see how Jesus loves: Matt. 4:23; Luke 4:16-21; Matt. 17:14-20; John 13:1-14. 
From the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus encouraged everyone by preaching and teaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus worked to heal every kind of sickness; free everyone he encountered from oppression; and declared the year of God’s favor – which can also be translated as declare the era of God’s grace!  Jesus encountered imperfect followers and disciples of little faith, but he loved them, healed them, and encouraged them despite his frustrationsJesus served his disciples and everyone he met, and he has taught us that to follow him we must take up the mantle of service and “wash one another’s feet.” 
Each of us has an ideal version of how we think church should be, and when the church does not fit our ideal we find fault, complain, cause strife in the church, and maybe even abandon it.  This behavior causes fractures in the church and leads to broken relationships - which is the EXACT opposite of what we need to do to build the church!  To build the church, and build the Kingdom we must love as Jesus loved – accepting the church as it is, with all of its faults; encourage each other with the Good News of Jesus; work to heal the physical and spiritual sickness of the church; free those who are oppressed; declare the era of God’s grace; and despite our frustrations serve one another.  In reality, the church is our training ground for learning how to love as Jesus loves!  Let’s get to work!

In Christ’s Love, Jason

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