How to live as a "loved lover." [CFL News ~ June, 2014]

How to live as a “loved Lover.”

Dim or bright, there are many of views of the church¹ in our culture today: house of horrors, irrelevant relic, quaint cultural icon, occasional necessity, spiritual shopping mall, community lifeline, or beautiful bride.

What?! A beautiful bride?! WHO looks at the church like that?

Well, the groom of course! That’s Jesus. Despite her many flaws and whoring tendencies,² Jesus gushes with love for His Church. Yes, gushes. He puts it like this in Isaiah 62:5b, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.” Now remember, this declaration appears in a book (Isaiah) full of God’s indictments against His whoring people! The amazing fact of grace is this: despite our whoring, God still loves His church through Christ.³

God wants His opulent and gracious love for His people to deeply affect us as individuals and as communities of faith. We are to live like corporate and individual brides rejoicing in our Groom’s delight over us. This includes responding to His love by gratefully and joyfully loving Him, each other, and the world. In sum, you could say that we are to live as “loved lovers.” And all this is true despite our nagging problem with whoredom.³

This is a far cry from using the church to accomplish our goals, even noble goals like affirming life. When we do this, we’re robbers who pluck the gems and lace from Christ’s bride. In the life arena, we can sometimes do this by nagging for volunteers and money without a sincere concern for the well-being of the church.

It is an honor to love the church. It’s hard sometimes, that’s true. But God’s love for us despite our whoring should compel us to gladly persevere. This is why Churches for Life is Churches for Life! Our entire ministry exists, as our mission clearly states, to nourish churches as gospel-driven champions of life. We are “loved lovers.” Everything we do, and all the resources we receive, are used to adorn and strengthen local churches for Christ’s pleasure and joy in the life arena.

Please consider the ways that you can live as a “loved lover” toward your church. Perhaps we can help you start a Life Team. Or, after you have given your tithes to your local church, maybe you can help us nourish churches by giving a tax-deductible gift to Churches for Life. Give securely online using the button below, or mail checks payable to "Churches for Life" to POB 411752, St. Louis, MO 63141. Thank you!

Less is More

A difficulty we sometimes find among Life Teams is that they try to do too much. The result is often a continuous flurry of initiatives that often don’t go well and breed discouragement and fatigue in Team members. This month’s Nugget is simple: less is more. Generally-speaking, it’s much better to take on fewer equipping projects so the Team can invest the needed time in planning, promotion, and implementation. It is totally normal and healthy to spend six months planning and promoting a major effort like a weekend seminar, a prayer vigil, a luncheon, or your church’s participation in a walk for life or sidewalk ministry. So, give yourselves permission to do less with excellence! For more on this topic and many others essential to Life Team health, consider Tool 3: Life Team 101.

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Reach Out And Touch Your Team

In the spirit of those old AT&T long distance ads ("reach out, reach out and touch someone..."), our Leader Nugget this month encourages you to communicate regularly with your Team. If you, as the Team Leader, only email your Team to remind them of an upcoming meeting, you are NOT communicating enough! Your Team needs to hear from you. They especially need encouragement in the gospel. They need to know you are thankful for their commitment. They need reminders to do their between-meeting homework. You can “reach out and touch” your Team using a variety of means: email, phone calls, face-to-face conversations, texts, Facebook, Twitter, and more. Get fully equipped as a Life Team Leader with our new Life Team Leader Kit!

Question: We need to conduct a live version of our Life Team Leader Training in St. Louis this summer. This would apply to potential, new, and existing-yet-untrained Life Team Leaders. If you are interested, please contact us at info@getintolife.org.

Reminder: Join our Life Team Leader conference call on Tuesday, June 17 at 7:00pm. Click picture for details.