Why You Love the Church (continued)

Here are several more responses. They are worth perusing, for the encouragement and to get a sense for what makes a church “good.”

1. I love my church because they don’t get hung up on stuff like what to wear, where you work or where you went to school.

2. I love my church! Growing up in a small Korean church, my life was filled with church issues. Church splits, pastor against congregation, congregation against congregation, you name it. I grew up so bitter about church and every week was a new reason why I should leave the church. “I can grow so much more at a bigger church, I can serve much more, I think God’s calling me elsewhere, etc.” God has COMPLETELY changed me since then. I realized that it was all for a reason why I went through those things. The church isn’t SUPPOSED to be perfect. Despite all my complaints about how poisonous my church environment was, I somehow matured into a true Christian who loves Christ and the church with all of my life. Instead of complaining and nitpicking at all the issues in the church, I was supposed to serve it! By God’s grace He has shown me what it means to love the body.

3. I love the (local) church because it is God’s agent of sanctification in my life. Together with my wife, the members of my local church persevere with me through sin and teach me the gospel.

4. I love the structured, corporate worship of the church in prayer, song, sacrament, and sitting together under the Word preached.

5. I love my pastor — he is probably the most patient guy I have ever met and always offers helpful (both positive and negative) words for my growth as a Christian.

6. I love watching my two-year-old son running with a smile on his face to see his grandparents every Sunday morning and sitting around the table at lunch talking as three generations about what he heard in Sunday School that morning. Hearing him say, “What a beautiful day. God made the sun and God made the trees,” and listening to him singing Jesus Loves Me and asking, “What’s Jesus doing now?” In short, I love that in our local church my son is being taught from the word of God and able to see his parents and grandparents spending time together worshiping the Lord.

7. I love my church because my pastor preaches doctrine.

8. I love my local church because I receive good solid biblical teaching.

9. I love my church. I’ve been actively discipled by the men in this church since I’ve joined and more than any church I’ve been in.

10. One thing I love about my church: We have congregants from Sudan, Ethiopia, Burma, Congo, Puerto Rico, Morocco, and the U.S. Despite this diversity, we have one very important thing in common: we love Jesus Christ.

11. One of my favorite parts of my local church boy is the baptisms that take place during the service. Last week our pastor had the chance to baptize a woman with ALS and it was pretty powerful.

12. I love the corporate worship. I don’t do personal worship well enough to fill my soul.

13. I love the way our church accepts people where they are, no matter who they are. For example, we have a guy who is homeless, a little “unstable”, and smells questionably…but he comes EVERY WEEK, sits in the front and worships God with all he has. And people ALWAYS stop to shake his hand or hug him and tell him how glad they are that he was there…THAT is the love of Christ through the local church.

14. I love my church because their commitment to the Gospel and living it out in our city. I can’t imagine a more loving group of people to fellowship with.

15. I love the compassion of my local church.

16. I love my church because though we are not perfect, we are all striving to know our Lord better, love Him better and share the good news of His sacrifice with all those that we encounter. It isn’t pretty at times but we hang in there with one another.

17. I love the church precisely because if we did not have a reason to meet as a semi-formal collection of broken people we would lose an opportunity to see how God works. Because in practice when we try to avoid problems we remove any need for God to work (usually through other people!) to solve those same problems. And I would rather see God work through the institutions (yes, I just used that word!) that he established through his people than try to scrap those same institutions if we get frustrated. I’m not sure if that made any sense, but what I’m trying to communicate is that I love the church because, flaws and all, it is where I see God most clearly.

18. I love the Church because: it’s a place where broken people who have been redeemed by Christ shed blood can come together and worship Him for what He has done for them.

19. I love my local church because it is located in the most unlikely of places…..right in the center of Hollywood, just a few blocks from Sunset and Vine and the Walk of Fame. I praise God that right in the heart of our culture’s Mecca, God has seen fit to plant a light to shine in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

20. I love most everything about my church. We’re not perfect, but God placed me, a sinner, in a position to shepherd sinners. It’s messy, and we all fall short, but as a former unchurched Christian-hater, I have to say that life inside the church is so much better than anything the world has to offer. The body and bride of Christ are something I cannot do without.