I wrote yesterday that some who advocate that we “love the church,” really mean their institutional church, and that people can make a difference by going to church and listening to good teaching. I don’t agree. Local churches should be training people to put the Word into practice…out in the world. Jesus is clear that just listening to good teaching is not enough. (See, for example, Matthew 7.24 – 27.)

There is a good reason to go to church. This paragraph was embedded in an article about the dangers of social media:

When you go to a church, you’re choosing to associate with lots of other people who you often would never associate with otherwise. But once you see that someone whose personality or politics might otherwise rub you the wrong way also shares your deepest values and beliefs, it becomes easy to overlook such differences. – From Christians Delete Your Accounts? by Mark Hemmingway 

Our pastor frequently makes the point that we have people on both sides of the political spectrum, and we need to learn how to get along with each other. And here’s a good reason why: because we agree on the most important things.

We should be able to get along with folks in our church as well as folks in other churches. Often an overemphasis on the “rightness” of our church results in putting up walls that exclude others. Back in the 90s, I went to the first few Promise Keepers events. These were fantastic displays of “the church” – the people – all kinds of people: young, old, black, white, rich, not so rich, charismatic, non-charismatic – we were all there, and that alone was worth the price of admission.

And in that marvelous environment, I’ll never forget what happened in the lunch line. I was talking with some men, also from Colorado Springs, and they asked where I went to church. When I told them, they immediately and obviously increased their distance from me. Why? Because they went to one brand of Presbyterian church, and I went to another. Another church. A different brand. One they felt was inferior.

Folks, if we’re going to love the church, let’s love the whole church, not just our Sunday morning expression of it. (I think I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.)

Let’s love the people. The ones who share our values on the most important person of all: Jesus.

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation… (Revelation 5.9, ESV)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2.19 – 22, ESV)