When a Church Stops Loving...

A modern church and its congregation is like a ship. Some are more like cruise ships, a party and event for and theme for every day of the cruise. Some are more like a sailboat, drifting here and there, but only making progress when the winds blow in the right direction, reeling back when storms come calling. And then some are like an old tugboat, pulling mightily against a big barge, stuck in some sludge, very slowly trudging through the harbor. Some might even be like a slave-driven ship, with its oars being tiredly moved while the headmaster barks orders.

There are three ways ships usually sink. The first one could be a catastrophic event like an enormous unforeseen tidal wave, sweeping the ship completely over with all of its crew and members swept into the sea. The second is to assault the ship with many blows, some maybe large and some small, but eventually there are too many holes to plug and no matter how hard we try, it is a steady downfall into the deep. The last is a purposeful sinking. The kind where the ship is just worn out and there isn't enough money to keep her going. So we permanently dock her if she's lucky, a place where people come to visit, but not to do work. Or for the unlucky mass, she is sunk to the ocean, her doors closed forever.  She lost some crew members overboard and some of them have been lost to sea and some have been swimming in the murky waters alone now without a ship to rescue, and a precious few have been gently rescued by another type of ship. 

Churches sink the very same way... I have seen many enormous waves hit different churches, the cheating preacher scandal, the divorced pastor, the embezzlement scandal. Those are certainly unseen by all who are not committing the sin. They rock the church to the core and many times it will not ever come back. If the ship can be uprighted, there is much work to be done cleaning up the mess and debris.

The second assault happens blow by blow... it is so frustrating to watch. The decisions being made from sinful man's desires tearing apart the church piece by piece. Highly revered church-goers committing egregious sins and then people think, "If it happened to them, it can happen to me." A pastor makes a remark to a person judging their sin instead of helping them with it. An upstanding church member completely and utterly shuts people out of their life when discovering their sin. The congregation stops focusing on the true needs of their own and their community and starts focusing on, "How do we get more people coming here?" A minister leaves, because he's tired, tired of trying to bring needed changes that are shot down by prideful elders. A sense of pride envelopes members, and instead of thinking, "How can I help?" they think, "That person can't do this because of this, that, and the other that."

This type of sinking is difficult and painful to watch. It happens over such a long time that it may not be easily seen and then one day, another bomb hits, and it's to the deep she goes. If she's lucky, a new leader or congregation member, a mighty tugboat can bring her back to the docks to be repaired.

The third and last sinking is just as scary as the first two. After a long time, repairs and maintenance may not be done as needed to the church building. Emphasis isn't placed enough on the young and youthful, so the congregation is aging and losing interest. The church stops being a place of worship where people go to do the work of Christ. So sadly, the church becomes a hollow shell of what it once was. It is a place where people go to get their "Sunday fix", do their bench-warming, put on their "Sunday Best" and then they go home and don't think about Christ again until next Sunday. It is now a place to visit, not a place to repair and expand and keep working towards a goal. It is the dreaded "Dead Church". Eventually, this church may even close its doors forever, bought up by someone who liked the land.

A lot of people may think there is one reason for this, but is it the right reason to blame? We can blame the fall of man. We can blame our sin on our churches failing. But there is a greater reason, one we can all change. It is in our power, but our pride keeps us from doing it.

From Matthew 22:36-40

Matthew himself asked Jesus the question, "Teacher, tell me, which of these is the greatest Commandment in the Law?" He of course meant the Jewish Law.. the ten Commandments.

Jesus answered him, "You shall love the Lord your God with ALL of your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

As so many preachers preach on Sunday, repentance is not the greatest things Christians can do. It is only the first step. When we become Christians, our greatest commandment is to LOVE! LOVE your neighbor, who just had an affair. Love them and listen to them to find out WHY they ever did this in the first place. LOVE your coworker who you just found out is gay. LOVE your fellow congregation members who are struggling with love of money. And we are not talking about, "Hey, hi, how are you doing?" love... that is not love. Jesus said to love them as you love YOURSELF. He meant to give them the same forgiveness, using of excuses, and mercy that you give yourself. He also meant to help them as you would help yourself. 

Love all and be merciful. There is such a difference in preaching and teaching. When we preach, we are prideful in our ways. We tell a person that their actions are sinful, reprehensible, even that God HATES it. How can we bring that person to the Lord while telling them the Lord hates their behavior, and even them? I can't think of a more sinful thing than to go against God and his commandment to LOVE by doing this.

When we teach, we talk about our lost ways and how God has made a difference in our lives. We save the guilt and the conviction to God. If God doesn't like what a person is doing, there WILL be conviction, and we can't force that. 

Jesus told us to love for a reason. When we love people, we may see their sin, but we don't judge. We understand that it is only by God's grace that our salvation comes. Pride in Christianity brings destruction to churches. I am so THANKFUL I am a Christian, but it is not my doing. It is not from me that it comes. How dare I have pride for it?

How can love change all of this? Remember the first ship? She hit an iceberg or a tidal wave that capsized her. How could love change this? Her captain, the one in charge, could have been more alert to the goings on, in tune with either his own guidance or given better tools to the crows nest, to avoid the disaster, maybe not completely, but enough to keep the ship afloat. Remember the second ship? She was pelted time after time with blows from cannons or missiles. How could she have survived? By having the intelligence to know where enemy ships are, avoid them, run from them, or how to build up defenses against them. Remember the third ship? The last one became an empty, unused shell with no crew to maintain her. With a lot more love, investment, and work, she could have enjoyed many more years at sea.

Don't let your churches sink like these ships. Keep the love of your neighbor, your church, and most of all the LORD in your heart. Jesus commanded it to us, and more importantly, when we love other sinners, we are reminded of how grateful we need to be for grace upon our own souls.