Where Has All The Love Gone? Addendum

There has been a lot of interest in my last blog dealing with love (or lack of it) within the local church. If you haven't read it yet you should take a minute to read it to give you some background on this entry.

There is something else I want to add to this issue that came to me as I thought over the things I had written:

As I mentioned I have been in ministry within the church all of my adult life, the past 9 of those years were spent as a senior pastor. One thing that often frustrated and saddened me was when people who were dealing with serious issues in their lives would disappear from church while they worked through their issues. I would often remind people that in times of struggle it makes more sense to attend church more not less - to use the time there to press into God and lean on the support of fellow believers. That method of encouragement didn't seem to work too often though.

To be more specific, it wasn't just any kind of struggle that seemed to drive people away from church, it was almost always a personal struggle with some kind of sin. For example, if a person was struggling with loss and grief they would be around more, press into God and lean on the church family for support. But if a person was in a relationship that they knew to be unhealthy or sinful, they would pull back from the church and avoid contact with church friends.

I know that a part of the reason for this withdrawal was the enemy working against them, trying to isolate them so he could defeat them more easily, but I also wonder if a part of the reason had to do with the lack of expressed love in the church.

Think about it - if it is true that the church is failing to really love people especially those who sin in action and/or lifestyle (as I wrote about in my last blog), then when you find yourself in that place would you want to be around the church more or less? Obviously less!

So if this is true, then the only course of action for someone struggling with personal sin, doubt, addictions, etc, is to avoid the judgement of the church until the issue is resolved and they can "clean themselves up" and come back to church. The problem with that is that experience tells me that many of those people never come back to church at all.

These are serious issues that we must be honest with ourselves about if the church is really going to reach hurting people, and if we as Christians are ever going to be able to love people the way Jesus did.

I would love to hear your feedback on all this so leave a comment below or comment on my link on Facebook.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1Cor. 13:4-8a