Some years ago there was a buzz slogan that swept across the United States that simply stated I Love My Church. 100,000s of T-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, and even henna tattoos were made with that slogan, handed out in 100s of churches and social media lit up with the excitement of people publicly saying that they love their church. I love my church was a rallying point for many congregations and the response peaked interest from secular and religious circles. The public display that people love their church caught some people off guard because their experience with church that it was something to endure not to be excited or passionate about. The slogan helped many churches build identity, momentum, and successful outreach movements that resulted in 1000s coming to Christ.
A handful of years later, like most causes, the I Love My Church slogan still exists but has waned in popularity. Unfortunately for many Christians the rise and fall of popular slogans and causes illustrates their own spiritual journey and even perhaps participation and opinion of the Church. I think many times our decrease excitement and anticipation for the Church is because we believe the things that we say, but we don’t understand the things we believe. Love is one of those words that we say all the time, but few of us understand the true definition or power of that word.
I believe that this is true for most ways that we use the word love, but specifically in the context of how we say I love my church. I have met 1000s of people who believed they loved their church. They meant it, were excited for their church, participated (maybe even adamantly participated), and whole-heartedly believed that they loved their church. The problem is 3 months, 6 months, a year later many if these people have lost their excitement or perhaps aren’t even around anymore.
So what happened? Did they fall out of love for their church? Did something catastrophic happen? Did they get abducted by aliens? I believe the problem was that they didn’t fully understand what they believed concerning love. Maybe they thought love was being for something? Maybe they thought love was being excited about something? Maybe they found hope, joy, or connectedness and it made them feel cared and valued so they liked the feelings that that something allowed them to feel?
Maybe we as church leaders forgot to teach them what love truly means? Maybe we forgot to open the Bible to I Corinthians 13 and not just read it over them, but dive into it and teach them what love thoroughly means? Maybe it’s not too late to teach our church, our people what love is so that they can recalibrate their definition and begin to love their church? I Corinthians 13:7: “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” If we take this verse and begin to help our people apply it, I believe we will accomplish 2 things: first we will help our church’s create whole hearted followers who will be owners and champions for the Church, second I believe we will teach our people the true meaning of love that they can apply in all areas of their lives and they will be able to step into healing and freedom. When we teach our people that Biblical love is constant, enduring, and hopeful no matter what is going according to our preference our desires, our people become wiser and our churches become stronger. As love is learned and lived out I believe more and more people will be to declare with more conviction and confidence that they love their church.
But the process starts with me, you, the individual. You need to ask yourself. I need to ask myself the question. Do I love my church? The answer should not depend on whether you are a pastor, a leader with a title, a lifelong member, I believe it should be answered on how much you know what love really means and how much you are willing to live that out. I encourage you to never cheapen the meaning of love (In any area of your life). Remember and be inspired by the author and illustrator of love (John 3:16).
Let us choose to be leaders that teach and model to people how to be authentic people who say I Love My Church!