What Will it Take?

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another.” John 13:34

I know it is quite fashionable for Christian writers to point out the failings of the modern “First World” church. The failings are not easy to miss. We are easily attracted to big buildings, flashy productions of worship, political rhetoric and self-indulgent prayer. We measure success by numbers. We attract the world with Broadway-style flash. We stack our literature tables with booklets telling exactly who is “in” and who is “out” in every election.

And our prayers, don’t start me on our praying. Recently a leader in a local church shared to a group he leads that God answered his “tiny” prayer that his favorite baseball team would win their most recent game. The game ended in “miraculous” fashion, and the leader said, “God cares about what His sheep care about.” Amens were heard among the group.

So, having started upon that soapbox, let me quickly dismount. I have written plenty of pieces about the ills of the current North American Christianity. Others have written about it much better than me. I think there is a deep-seated reason we get so distracted; we have forgotten the way Jesus wants to grow His church.

As a boy and young teen I grew up in Alhambra, Calif. East of Downtown Los Angeles we were a half hour from the beach, Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena where the Rose Parade is held each year, the Rose Bowl itself, Disneyland and Hollywood. Beside the big name entertainment, we had the full menu of community offerings. A young boy or girl could pick about any interest and find a way to fill it. While one of my best friends spent hours with Sea Scouts, I was acting in the local children’s theater.

The summer before high school, our family moved to Northern California. We set down roots in Concord; a half hour from San Francisco in the East Bay area known as Diablo Valley. Now, as a full-fledged teenager I again had all the offerings of city life available. I continued my interest in drama, working on every production of the huge theater department at Ygnacio Valley High School. With a student body of 4,000 the opportunities were exciting for this budding thespian.

I had leading roles in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brody”, and my favorite English Play, “The Crucible”. I learned the art of lighting design when were produced musicals (I was not very confident of my singing voice.) We visited the American Conservatory Theater and saw the original cast production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell”.

I give that brief resume of my teen life to illustrate how much was available. When Christian live with so many opportunities nearby they can begin to reason that the church has to keep up in some manner. And so, we move into competition mode, trying to offer everything the secular society does. The only problem is that many of their programs are funded by grants, government or private entities. The church exists on the giving of those who attend. Unless you are a “mega church”, there is no way to compete with the production values of the world around us.

In fact, the median attendance of U.S. churches is 75. Yet, even those churches feel the pull to make “church” feel like the best entertainment possible. I know; I’ve tried. The last big city I’ve lived in was Sacramento in 1988. Since then I have pastored churches in rural areas of North Dakota and Washington, in communities averaging about 2,000 people. No mega-church here!

Jesus commanded something else of His church. He commanded that we love each other in the same way He loved us. Don’t get me wrong, we can certainly put on big productions, have quality worship teams and love one another. But, the question is, what are we placing our bet upon: the good production values, or loving one another, Jesus-style?

Because the very next verse tells us the way everyone will know we are His followers is by that love! We do not become identified as followers of Jesus because we showed a great movie about family values, because our worship team writes all its own music, because our preacher knows how to use theater to get his points across, or because we stand politically for either red or blue issues. None of those are wrong or forbidden. And some of them might even help us express the good news more effectively.

But Jesus zeroed in on “love” when He wanted His disciples to know how to be identified in the world. Today it might be: “Oh, you go to the church that puts on the Singing Christmas Tree.” Or, “Yeah, you guys are really into politics, aren’t you?” What if we were known as “the people who love everybody”? Whatever our “stand” on any issue, wouldn’t it be refreshing to be known as people who love first of all?

Jesus’ kind of love is difficult; it is not for the faint-hearted. He said, “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another.” He didn’t say, “Love each other as much as I love you.” He told us to love each other in the way He loved us. In the particular context when in which Jesus spoke these words He had just washed the feet of each disciple. Then, within less than a day, He would be giving His very life, suffering on the cross out of love for them.

It has been said over and over, so much so, that perhaps we have lost the urgency. But, the church must commit to loving the way that Jesus did. We have got to stop walking out of one church and going to another because we get our feelings hurt. We must humble ourselves and work out the differences. Unless we start to live out the love that Jesus commands, I am afraid the church in North America may not last. Not as we know it, anyway.

What would it take for you, reader, to start loving the way that Jesus loved you? What would it mean for you to serve the other people around you in the church you attend? What would it mean, reader, for you to go back to a church you left and say, “I need to start loving.”? What would it mean, for myself, and every other pastor, to make loving one another the key to everything we do? What would it look like? How would our “programs” change?

You see, I am almost 60 years old. Forty three years ago a young youth pastor put his hand on my shoulder and said to me, “Mark, I just want you to know that I love you and so does Jesus.” He had never met me before. I was visiting my grandparents in Tulsa for Christmas. They went to Sunday School, so I followed along, attending the High School class, where I used my big mouth to put that guy in his place. His response wasn’t to argue doctrine, but to assure a young man whom he had never meant that “I love you and so does Jesus.” It was two days later that I decided to follow that same Jesus.