“No church is perfect!” I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard that statement. My whole life has been in and around church. I grew up in a pastor’s home, serve on the pastoral staff at Mud Creek Baptist Church, and teach at a Bible college training church leaders. Sometimes, that soft dismissal is a nice way of us defending our imperfections. Others use the phrase to cast shade toward another body of believers. By the way–and regardless of why it’s used–the statement is more than true. Every church is imperfect because every church is made up of imperfect people. But that’s not what I’m writing about.
I’ve grown to deeply love my church, even though it’s not perfect. And over the next few weeks, I want to tell you why. In today’s post, I want to start with the most important. From my perspective, we get the big thing right: the gospel takes center stage. In Pastor Greg’s sermons, our curriculum tracks, our local, national or international missions, or even our song selections, Jesus is the focus, and his good news of great mercy extended to sinners gets the lion’s share of our attention.
Just recently, I listened to my wife share in our small group about a mission trip to India (I will share more about our missions in a few weeks). With tears streaming her cheeks, she said, “It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever talked to people about Jesus who’ve never heard his name before.” In the room, you could feel the surprise and sadness as we grappled with these great privileges–we know Jesus and we worship him freely. I personally tried to imagine not knowing about Jesus. I can’t.
At my church, you can hear his voice every time the Word is read. You can see his joy when we sing together of his greatness. You can sense his power when a sinner repents and receives Christ. Jesus. Everything should be about him. My church gets this right. And that’s one reason I love my church!
Typestry 
Wow! When I logged in to WordPress a few minutes ago, the first blog that came up on my feed was one where a young girl included on her thankful list her church. Then, as soon as I clicked out of her blog to go back to my feed, the next one I came to was yours, and what are you talking about? Your church! How cool is that? Well, it’s really cool, because it’s just more confirmation of what I was wanting to write about 🙂
If what you are describing is real – and I have no reason to doubt you – you are very blessed and fortunate to be a part of such a vibrant and active local body of Christ. Cherish it, my brother, and do everything you can to keep it healthy and growing.
God bless, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
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This is what every church should feel like, but unfortunately this isn’t always the case. What a blessing when we do find a congregation that gets it right – may we never take this for granted!
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