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3 Things I Love about the Church

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Lately it’s easy to find someone bashing the church bemoaning everything that they find wrong with it. However there are many things to love about the church.

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I think the disconnect lies with how we define church.

If you are referring to the multi-million dollar campuses that dot our landscape, the endless hours spent by professionals running the “machine”, or the entertainment approach so “they will stay at our church”, then you are right. I am not in love with that church.

What church am I talking about? The ekklésia!

Ok greek nerd time. ekklésia is the greek word for church in the New Testament. ek meaning “out from and to”. And  kaléō meaning “to call”.

The church is a group of people called out from this world and to the mission of Jesus Christ. That I love. I love that church, both in its local universal manifestation.

Here are three components of that kind of church that I love:

Worshippers of God

Please don’t misunderstand me. I know when Christians attend a church they usually worship God.

I am referring to people who live a life of worship. Everything they do is an act of worship. Their work, their leisure, their family life. Everything.

I love it when I am with fellow believers who worship God! I know it ushers in His presence. All my agendas fall by the wayside. I leave renewed and emboldened. I look forward to the next time I can be around them.

I love that about the church.

Desiring to live in community

When a church operates more like a family than a corporation, it draws me to it.

Sadly that has become more difficult with the way our isolated, mobile lifestyle is today. Even though we follow each other on social media, attend activities together, and see each other on Sundays, most of us don’t live much life together. We don’t really know each other.

Yet, the Holy Spirit knits our hearts together adopting us into the Father’s family making us joint heirs, brothers and sisters. A family encourages, teaches, sharpens, comforts and loves me; even when they really know me.

I love that about the church!

Fully invested in His mission 

It’s common for a group of people to enjoy getting together for good music and fellowship. But a people called out by God is one that also knows and understands their mission and is fully invested in it.

They understand that God is a missionary God who sent His Son and now sends us.

What I love about the church is that as we spend time with God, He knits our hearts together so that we want to spend time together as He instills in us a passion to see others know Him.

I LOVE that about the church!

I can list many other things I love about the church, but those three are foundational for me.

About the Author

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I am a longtime Austinite. Married my beautiful wife over 35 years ago. Adopted our son September 2012.
As a small business and nonprofit coach/consultant, I have found my sweet spot. I lean on my varied background of corporate, small business ownership, writing, and pastoring as I work to help small business owners and nonprofit founders build the business they want to have.


  • Kenny – great article, and I am in complete agreement with you. Those are the primary things I love about the church, too. The main missing ingredient, that I see, are Christians who are fully invested in the mission. Worship and Christian community are typically in our comfort zones. I have know great worshippers who aren’t focused on reaching those outside the church. The mission part forces us out of the Christian bubble and into relationships that can be challenging and difficult, but also very rewarding. For the sake of a world our God created and loves, we need to be willing to embrace the mission.

    • Well from one mission minded guy to another, of course I agree with your assessment. However, I submit that one who truly worships God can’t help but be moved to share with others who He is. Missio Dei.

  • Kenny
    Thank you for describing the church God calls us to – to be His people and His representatives to others. I agree with your 3 componenets and will add another. I love that I was invited. Not just to attend a service or an event – but people of the church invited me into their lives and to walk with them. Christians reached out to me and let me know that Jesus church was for me also. They brought me into their homes, they broke bread with me, they prayed with me, they listened to me and shared truth in love. For so long I felt I did not qualify to be part, or what I saw was not appealing and hypocritical. But the real church reached out to me and invited me to be a part.

    Recently I was at a mission church downtown and I was talking to a man there I will call Dave. I had met Dave before and prayed with him and encouraged him, but I had never invited him in. I knew if I gave him my phone number it would open the door for complication and inconvenience but I could not just tell him I would see him next time. I took his number and played it safe – I have called him and now he calls me sometimes. He feels invited enough to be able to call me. What is next – I dont know but I know I want Dave to know the real church, Jesus church – not just a service to come to, but to know he is invited to walk with me.

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