This Sunday we are doing “I Love My Church” Sunday. Perhaps this is an idea that isn’t too familiar to my Australian Buddies, but we are actually celebrating what God has been doing in our Church. We are going to sing some praises for Jesus and re-affirm that we actually really do “Love Our Church”.
We have T-Shirt made that say that, we have balloons, we are throwing a big party this week to set the year off right. It seems we avoid giving much praise to the Church, we don’t want to fall into Religion so we keep the focus firmly on the Gospel. Yet Christ often refers to his Church as his Bride (Ephesians 5:22-33). Which I am pretty sure means that he loves his Church. Jesus loves his people who comprise the church. Perhaps it is time to do a little less self-loathing in regards to the Church, slap on a T-Shirt and declare that you love your Church.
It is nice to remind the people in our community that we not only love Jesus with all our hearts we love our church as well. It is a celebration Sunday where we reflect on the good things that God is doing, but set some vision for an exciting 2012. I thought I might share some thoughts on why you should “Love your Church”.
1. You will never invite someone to a Church that you are embarrassed about. Plain and simple your mission is to share the gospel, so you share Jesus what is the next step? If you’ve spent most of your time bashing the church and making fun of it do you really think they’d come along.
2. By declaring out loud you love your Church you are actually encouraging your Pastors. It lets them know they have a team that is excited and encouraged by what is happening in the ministry. It also reminds your Pastor that you love him, sometimes he need to hear that.
3. It is unusual with so much Church bashing going on it flys in the face of normal to walk around with an “I Love My Church” shirt on. People will think your weird and that feeling is really good.
4. With everyone else slamming their Church people are probably more likely to come to yours if the word is out that a bunch of people love their Church.
5. Gratitude should be a little ridiculous. David gets his kit off and celebrates with the Slave Girls when the Ark comes back, perhaps there is a lesson that sometimes we need to lose a little dignity so we can properly be gracious.
