Becoming a Loving Church
What can you do to Become a Loving Church? One that Christ has called us to?
"Accept one another just as Christ accepted you." Romans 15:7
Love is the model we are to use to show God's love to the world!
After many decades of conducting research with pastors and churches, we have synthesized a few points to help us keep, alive and well, the main component necessary for a useful and successful church. Of course, the main component is love. It is central to the Truth of our Lord. It is contagious, exciting, and inviting; and, it is essential to the human condition. The key factors that will help your church grow in numbers—and effectiveness--will be found in the basics and exhibition of Faith, Hope, Love and Gratitude. Consider these your musical scales or basketball drills. We must know Who we point to, what He has called us to be and do, and how we go about it. These are our Christian drills. If you really dig into John 15 and Colossians 1, you will have all you need to begin.
All Jesus asks of us is to receive Him and His love so we can pay it forward to others, to show His love by our display of love so we succeed at His will.
If your church is stagnating, losing ground, or losing members, you must seek the answers in prayer and The Bible. You must also know or relearn the drills—the prime precepts of what it means to be in Christ. These questions must be asked and answered: Who are we in Christ? How has His love, impacted us? What are we going to about that? With the pastor leading, the Church leadership must make the decision; this decision must be positively communicated to the congregation. The decision: we are to be as our name denotes—Christians, Christ-like—and, it is our responsibility to love like Christ.
Curriculums that you can use to reset, train and equip your leadership as well as material on how to lead your church to what God has truly called us too:
Becoming a Loving Church, Part I
Love is the model we are to use to show God's love to the world!
The plan to build a loving church is simple. Build up your faith by the Word and spiritual disciplines; then, commit ourselves to building each other up, also. Look at the example given us by the Early Church in Acts 2: 44-45. "All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need." That is the formula! We are to be together, helping one another..."
Becoming a Loving Church Part II
What a Loving Vibrant Church is Like
To be a loving church, we need to grasp the incompressible idea that each of us is deeply loved. Yes, this means you and me, he and she, that guy and that lady. Yes, even those whom you find it impossible to love. All loved by God. We are made by love, and we are made to love! So, this should be easy, right?
Becoming a Loving Church Part III
Getting Your Church to get it
In the process of any change in any church, you will meet with friction (at best) or hostility (at worse). All people have their own needs, desires, and experiences. And, all people need real love. In this final part, we will look at what can help smooth the process of change.
All Jesus asks of us is to receive Him and His love so we can pay it forward to others, to show His love by our display of love so we succeed at His will.
The true mark of a mature Christian is the love that is built upon the foundations of our obedience and submission. This is the ability to totally surrender it all upon Christ as LORD, and to be as the Epistle writers demonstrated.
