thanksgiving

It seems like there is always one weekend a year where I'm far more conscious of all that I'm thankful for than any other time of the year. That weekend would be this weekend. I think with the holiday this weekend being called Thanksgiving, ti makes me stop to think.

As much as there things in life that I don't have that I really desire, I'm reminded once again of just how much I have to be thankful for - how much God has blessed me. Both people in my life and things I have. I can't imagine what my life would be like without the people in it, who I'm thankful are a part of my life.

I find myself wondering why it seems like it so often takes a holiday called Thanksgiving or something else that specifically speaks to that for me to think about this. Most of the time I just go through life with all that I have and don't even think about it. Often, taking for granted that I have those things and that those people will be there for me. Maybe this is something I need to learn to make a more consistent part of my life - not just a once a year thing.

How do I make thankfulness more a part of my life? What will that look like for me? What does that look like for you?

I think for me, and maybe for all of us, it has to begin as something we intentionally choose. If it doesn't come naturally to us right now, then we have to decide that we will stop at regular intervals and take a moment to thank God for all He has given us. And, over time, that becomes a more regular part of our lives. Over time, we learn to live a life of thankfulness rather than always needing a reminder to be thankful.

why should we love the church?

Since I wrote my last post on Tuesday, I’ve continued to think about the topic of loving the church. I started to think about why we should love the church. Since I feel that we should love the church, then it seemed natural to me that I would want to know why I should.

I just started reading a book that speaks to this from the first chapter, Messy Church: A Multigenerational Mission for God’s Family by Ross Parsley. Right from the beginning, the book talks about church being about family. That the church is a family that we are part of.

One particular quote from the book, explained it in a better way than I can:

“We need the kind of family that knows us, our fears and faults, but loves us anyway; the kind of family that will invest and forgive no matter what. It’s a community of people who share privileges and responsibilities as we learn how to live together in harmony. Church can’t be a place where we feel like a visitor, or somewhere we’re afraid to allow others to see our messages. It’s got to feel like home.” (Ross Parsley, Messy Church)

To me that describes church at its best – a family where we feel at home. And I think that makes a pretty good case for why we should love the church.

If you stop and think about it, we love our families even when they drive us crazy, or do something that hurts us, or make us mad. And we love them when they do good things too. If we do this with our families, doesn’t it make sense that we should do the same with our church families? In my books, it does.

I think when it comes to answering the question of why we should love the church, it comes down to how we view our church. If we view our church as a family, then we should be loving it the same as we love the families we grew up in (or wish we grew up in). A church family loves each other through everything – whether it is good or bad.

love the church?

As I sat in a church membership meeting a couple of nights ago, the thought crossed my mind that I love my church. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I mean, the discussion was about budgets and finances. Even as someone who deals with those things for a living, the truth is I don't particularly enjoy those parts of the meetings. But, it was at that moment that I found myself thinking about how I love my church.

Just to clarify before I go further: What I'm talking about when I talk about my church is the local body of believers that I'm a part of. And about both the people who make up this group and the "institution" (for lack of a better term) that it is.

In the days, since this meeting, I've thought a lot about why I love my church. It's been a while since I've thought about it, because the truth is I've had moments in the last few years where I wasn't sure I loved my church. Without going into details, I think it's sufficient to say that when people are such a huge part of something you love, the potential for things becoming challenging exists. And despite struggles at times, I can honestly say now that I love my church.

Over the last few years, I've heard more and more people say that they love and follow God, but they don't want anything to do with the church. I've always struggled a bit with how to respond when someone says that to me. Scripture makes it pretty clear that this life as followers of Christ is not meant to be lived alone. We need to go through life with other people.

Church is a place where we gather together with other believers from all walks of life to learn and grow. And it's not gathering just with people whose lives look the same as ours. But, also with people whose lives look different from ours. And it is important.

This has made me wonder if we need to learn to love the church. Maybe thoughts like the one I had a couple of days ago shouldn't seems o strange. Maybe they should be normal.

From what I can see in Scripture, the writers of the New Testament saw the gathering of believers as important. This was the early church. And the early church had structure and things in place to help ministry happen too. It's inevitable that when you gather people together to do ministry some sort of structure will develop - sometimes formally and sometimes informally, but it will happen. And that's not a bad thing.

Should I love my church?

I believe the answer to this question is yes. And that should be the answer for all of us who claim to be followers of Christ. As followers of Christ who are not made to walk this life alone, we should have a church that we love. What the church looks like may be different for different people, but we need to have a church that we love.

Do you love your church?