Why Love?

I've spent some time pondering what others have said regarding the faults of the modern day church and while some of it I can buy, my response is that age-old saying "Keep it simple, stupid!"  It seems that most opinions on how to reach the un-churched and even those who have left the church involve some sort of formula.  [Good music + effective small groups + Biblical teaching = attachment and growth]  I made that one up as an example of what I mean - do this and that and follow the example of this church or that church and you'll be a success.  But how are we defining success?  Growth in number of members or regular attenders?  Good spiritual growth of the long term members but no increase in new believers?  Both?  or is it something different? 

It's impossible to answer that because it is all based on opinion and interpretation.  It seems that each church body...each denomination has it's own standard (opinion) on what it means to be successful.  and we all know what is said about opinions -"Opinions are like..." Well, there's no need to finish that, you've heard it before.  The problem is that there is no constant.  The church has got sucked into this secular belief that there is no absolute truth, that truth is what the majority believes...and that causes problems for me.  Formulas change, majority opinions change...what is an unbeliever supposed to believe???

Now, you've seen the title of my blog so you can guess my opinion on this whole matter of where the church falls short.  LOVE.  It almost sounds too simple, but there's a great deal of depth to it once it is seriously considered.  The church needs to learn what it means to love...and then DO IT!  Pastors preach about God's love and that He saved us by His grace, but we leave it at that...or just simply forget that we are to "love our neighbors."  Or perhaps we don't understand what that means...or maybe we're too afraid to let go of our death grip on our 'balance beam' and actually love people.  We've got the verse backwards "Love ourselves as our neighbors love us."  We're so selfish and inwardly focused.  We need to learn to love people outside the four walls of our church buildings.

"But if I love others I'm going to get taken advantage of...."  Yep - welcome to the Christian life!  It is impossible to love the way we should and at the same time avoid being taken advantage of.  Christ did not withhold his love for fear of someone abusing it or him.  I suggest he freely loves KNOWING that he'll be abused and beaten and disowned.  We should do the same.  That's what will change the world!  This blog will explore my ideas and experiences concerning this idea called love and how I believe it is the way to change the world for Christ.

We don't need to scream and shout on street corners - we need to love.  We don't need to condemn and judge those who believe in abortion and embryonic stem cell research - we need to love.  We don't need to be the biggest church with the best show on Sunday morning - we need to love.  We need to be different than the secular world around us.

What does that mean?  Let's find out together...