About ten days ago, I was involved in two different text discussions on my phone. In one thread, our church secretary informed me that the church has adopted a new way of tracking attendance and we would no longer have to register our attendance on Sunday mornings as long as we wore a name tag that was generated by the new system. The purpose of this new method was to re-acquaint us with other church attenders after the huge disruption during the Covid pandemic. It’s a nice idea and I appreciate the thoughtfulness of having the chance to meet new folks and not have to fumble around awkwardly asking for names.
The second text thread had to do with a young man that I am mentoring. He’s a great guy, married with two children and a third on the way. In fact, he is the manager of the grocery store about a mile from our home where we shop most of the time. For some reason, he considers me someone he is comfortable with and he is also a fellow cook. We compare notes, encourage one another and he helps me pick out products for the smoker I use so much of the time.
He had just returned from Florida with his family and we were catching up by text. I told him that I missed speaking with him at the store and he responded by letting me know that he would rather still be in Florida for a little longer vacation. I thought I would add a little humor to the exchange and let him know that “I’m not feeling the love.”
I was waiting for his response when I realized that I had sent that last text, about not feeling the love, to the church secretary. To say the least, it was embarrassing! In fact, I was mortified! That certainly wasn’t an appropriate response to her after telling me that I didn’t have to check in any longer.
I tried to call the church, to no avail, and then sent a second text to her letting the church know that a had sent that last message by mistake. I went even further – letting them know that I WAS “feeling the love” from the church. Oddly, I didn’t hear back from her.
So the next time I was in the church, I stopped by the office to apologize in person. The church secretary told me that she hadn’t seen the exchange yet as she only checks the text thread once a week. Once again, I was embarrassed.
It got me to thinking about how many people really aren’t “feeling the love” from their churches. Especially in the larger mega churches, it is more common to be known through the groups that one identifies with rather than as an individual. That’s really too bad – a travesty, in fact.
I believe that to a large extent, we get out of church what we put into it. Jesus is the center of the worship experience . We have been created to be a community of believers. Each of us has different spiritual gifts and we are strongest when we use them together – one body, many different parts.
Our verse for tonight affirms the supremacy of Jesus and His deep love for the church. The apostle Paul tells us, in Colossians 1:18-19, “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him…”
My encouragement this evening is that Jesus gave Himself for the church, of which He is the head. If you really aren’t feeling the love of your church, then it is a human error and not a divine error. My prayer is that we all will feel the love of Christ throughout our lives and honor the sacrifice that He made for us. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…