“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete."
NIV—1 John 1:3
Have you ever wanted to be a part of an exclusive group? I’m not talking about an exclusive group that you can pay a certain amount of money to join like a country club. I’m referring to a group of like-minded individuals who choose not to let other people in—regardless of if they have the same views or not. Have you ever been there? Think about if for a second.
John wrote this letter near the middle to end of the first century to a group of people who were being led astray by “new age” thinkers. People called the Gnostics. These people were starting to drift away from the Jesus’ teachings only to follow after the pursuit of knowledge.
I hope you can see John’s heart in this passage. John did not condemn them about their foolishness or mistakes with a “holier than thou” attitude. He wanted to bring them into fellowship with other believers through love. Why? Because he’d seen this love and experienced it through following Jesus. He wanted other people to join him in this fellowship with God, the Father and Son, Jesus even if they’d made bad decisions.
Now, think about the church or ministry to which you belong. Is the mindset of your church or ministry to include people in your fellowship or is it to exclude people from your group? Ouch. Maybe we don’t think about that enough outside the realms of evangelism. Maybe we need to realize that there are people in our world that want to be included in what you and I have.
Why do you think people come to church? Is it the riveting communicator behind the pulpit? Is it the high level of entertainment found on a drop-down projector screen in front of the baptismal? Is it the food? (okay, maybe it is the food.) Is it the cutting edge music topping the Billboard 100? Of course not. People come to church to find something different—something the world cannot offer them. They come hoping to find unconditional love and acceptance. There are only a small percentage of people in this world who think they’ve done nothing wrong. Most people know the mistakes in his or her own life—we are all just looking for someone to look past those mistakes and love us anyway.
If your church’s mission is to do anything other than love God by loving people, make a change. I’m not saying to change churches—that goes on WAY too much. If I can put a Christian spin on Ghandi's quote, I’m talking about being the change you want to see in your church. If you start loving people and including them into your fellowship, you will see people come by the droves just to be loved by a church that will love like Jesus loved.
Two Qs and a Go:
1. Would you say your church or ministry does more to entertain people? Or to love people?
2. How do YOU love the people who walk through your church doors?
Go: If you are not a part of a church body I’d encourage you to not find a church that would best serve you but to find one that you can best serve.
