A Fresh Perspective - 10/26/07
If the unconditional love of God revealed through Jesus Christ is the heart and soul of Christianity, then the main task and mission of the church is to embody and manifest God's love. God's love can be expressed in many ways and take a variety of forms, but it always looks to the well-being of others.
Bishop Leontine Kelly was the first African-American woman to be appointed Bishop in the United Methodist Church. Her father was a pastor and when she was young, he was assigned to a congregation in Cincinnati. The church facilities were magnificent: awe-inspiring Gothic architecture, carefully crafted wood, beautifully adorned stained glass windows, and a huge, crystal chandelier. One afternoon the kids were playing in the basement of the large parsonage and they found what appeared to be a tunnel. That evening they excitedly showed their father their discovery. Around the dinner table their father said, "Children, I want you to remember this day as long as you live. Today, we have found a station on the Underground Railroad. The greatness of this church is not its carefully crafted wood or crystal chandelier or stained glass. The greatness of this church is below us. For these people dared to risk their lives to help the poor, frightened runaway slaves find their freedom and that was the mark of their greatness."
That church left a legacy of living the gospel. They loved. They loved to the point of risky engagement and involvement in the lives of the hurting and oppressed.
The church's mission is to love - to care for one another and to work for the good of all people.
The characteristics of love that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 cannot be learned overnight. They are learned patterns of conduct that must be cultivated over time. The church is called to be a community that models and supports such attitudes and behavior, to be a school for the learning and nurturing of the habits and practices of love.
Of course, we are human after all. We all fail. So forgiveness may be the central characteristic of love. Loving each other means forgiving each other for our failures to love. But as a community committed to the love of Christ, we must also hold each other accountable to embody and express that love - in our life together and in the grind of everyday life.
The significance of a church has nothing to do with the number of converts it boasts, or how many people attend, or how big the budget is. It has to do with how well it loves.
Chuck Queen is Senior Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, Frankfort. You can access his sermons and past articles at www.ibcfrankfort.com. He welcomes your comments at cqueen@fewpb.net.