Good Church?

"Why do you like your church?" It's a a pretty common question in Christian circles.

You get all kinds of answers like, "The preaching is awesome. I love the worship. The children's program is amazing."

Those are all good answers. Messages that provoke change, worship that leads us to the cross, our kids being challenged and encouraged are all healthy things.

I freely admit I've had problems with Church, so I'm not sure I'm the most objective observer. But something in those answers feels wrong. It's like we're saying, "The people who serve me, do their jobs well." Those answers free me of responsibility.

I wonder what it would be like to hear, "The people there show me who Jesus is."

I think what we miss is:, people will put up with poor preaching and sorry music if they know everyone in the building loves them.

I can leave Sunday morning inspired, uplifted... and unchanged. But if you love me enough to challenge, counsel, care for and confront me, it's hard to stay the same. If you take the time to hear my story and love me enough to enter into it, that has the potential to change everything.

This doesn't free church leadership of working hard to shepherd well. All it means is, if we do our job, theirs is a lot easier.