LOVE-A-FELLA!
D.L. Moody once said, “Show me a church where there is love, and I will show you a church that is a power in the community. (Moody 71)” He then went on to tell a story about a little boy who faithfully walked a great distance in order to attend a Sunday School class every week, that was located many miles from where he lived. Friends and family were impressed by his willingness to make the long trip on Sunday morning, but they wanted to know why he didn’t just look for another church closer to his home. His reply is a classic! He said, "They may be good for others, but not for me!" "Why not?" they asked. He boldly exclaimed, "Because they ‘love-a-fella’ over there! (Moody 72)” Oh that this could be said for all of our churches.
This is an old story, told from a bygone age, and it reflects a quaint understanding of how Christianity once behaved, but the church culture that is identified here, is absolutely timeless and still very relevant today. Making people feel loved is always relevant, and it never goes out of style! Cultivating a genuine sense of love and acceptance within a church is far more critical than just developing a catchy mission statement or a profound vision that merely sounds relevant or inclusive.
If the culture of a church is rotten, the vision of the pastor will never be fruitful, because fruit just doesn't grow in a toxic environment. As the Apostle Peter exhorted, “…above all things have fervent love for one another, for "LOVE WILL COVER A MULTITUDE OF SINS." Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:8-10)”
There seems to be an undercurrent of thought within the church today that, if you do everything like the big mega-church down the road, someday you’ll grow up to be a mega-church too. This is a patently false assertion, and it belies the fact that not everyone wants to be, nor should want to be a mega-church. There’s nothing inherently wrong with large churches of course, they have their place, but I think many are finding that they prefer the, “relational orientation” of the small church setting, to the, “programmatic and organizational orientations” of larger churches (McIntosh 177), that often find the cultivation of a loving environment to be an elusive goal.
Church growth gurus continue to develop programs that seek to manage the inevitable problems that arise with sprawling church growth, and chief among them, is the loss of the culture of love and acceptance that probably served to help them grow in the first place. The entire structure begins to change as the church grows, and decisions that were once made,
“in a parking lot or around a kitchen table in someone’s home… (McIntosh 873)”, now require significantly more thought, planning, and deliberative discussions. Warm, emotional relationships and subjectivity, has now been replaced by rational discourse and objectivity. So much of what goes on in a small church is,
intimate, personal, and relational; between people who love and care for each
other deeply, but this culture can be easily upset by unnecessary policy changes, designed to enhance growth.
Regardless of the size of church, large or small; all churches should focus their efforts on becoming and maintaining a community of believers that, “Love-a-fella!”
By Pastor Glen Mustian
Works Cited:
McIntosh, Gary, One Size Doesn’t Fit All. Flemming H. Revell. Grand Rapids, MI. Kindle. 1999.
Moody, Dwight. Moody's Anecdotes. Moody Press. Chicago, IL. Print. 1896.
New King James Version. The Holy Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishing. Nashville, TN. Print. 2002.
