What’s Love Got to Do With It?
How important is the concept of “Love” in Christianity?
I posed that question to SERI and was gifted with a myriad of christian websites explaining just how important Love is to the christian narrative.
What do you think those websites said about Love? What do you personally think? How important is it?
1———-2———-3———-4———-5———-6———-7———-8———-9———-10
(1 being not important and 10 being very important).
Go ahead, touch the screen where you think love’s importance should be in christianity. Here’s a small sampling of what can be found on the internet about the importance of Christian Love.
Christianity is a religion that preaches love as the most important thing.
- God is love.
- The love of God is greater than anything we can imagine.
- Love is effectively the most important principle Jesus taught.
- Love is the ultimate reason for everything of value. Love is the ultimate purpose.
- We will never lose our need for love. Love will govern all our actions, all our relationships.
- Love is the center of everything.
- Love is the nutrient that empowers faith.
Where’s the Love?
If love is so important in christianity one would think that mission statements of christian churches would reflect this importance and “Love” would be a major theme running all throughout them.
But that’s not what I found.
I visited a number of church websites, found their “what we believe” statement, copied and pasted it into a Word document and searched for the word “Love”. The results were a bit shocking as you’ll see.
I started with some churches in Greenville, SC because at that time I was producing a video about a homophobic pastor from there. I then moved on to older articles of religion, namely the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the foundation for the Presbyterian Church and the Articles of Religion for the Protestant Episcopal Church and then lastly looked at some local churches. Here are the results.
Types of love we’ll see in Christian mission statements:
- God’s love for humanity (including Jesus’ love for humanity)
- Believers’ love for God
- Christians’ love for each other
- Christians’ love for the unsaved world
- Generic love as an indistinct trait or act of love.
Historical Articles of Religion
Westminster Confession of Faith – 1646
12,000-word document with 12 mentions of love. Here’s the break down.
- Only one mention of God’s love for humanity.
- Five mentions of believers’ love for God.
- One mention of christian’s love for each other.
- No mention of Christians’ love for the unsaved world.
- Four mentions of Generic love as an indistinct trait or act of love.
Protestant Episcopal Church – 1801
As established by the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Convention, on the twelfth day of September, in the Year of our Lord, 1801.
4,475 words with two mentions of love.
- Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God. (2)
- The Supper of the Lord is a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves. (3)
Contemporary Articles of Faith
Love mentioned four times.
The Vineyard in SC: 183 words:
Church of God of Prophecy: A whopping 7,000 words:
Ascension Lutheran Church: 266 words
Love mentioned three times
The Church: 566 words
Summit Church: 800 words: Love is mentioned three times in the same sentence. All appear outside of what they call their “list of core beliefs”. The reference to Love is contained in a paragraph of “less-essential matters” which are beliefs left to the conscience of their church leadership and their members.
Love mentioned twice
Calvary Church Englewood: 1,235 words
Grace Christian Church in SC: 309 words
Elevation Church in SC: 485 words
“The Relentless Church” in SC: 304 words
Restoration Community Church: 406 words
Love mentioned once
South Fellowship: 1,780
Living Waters Tabernacle: 1,025 words
Sanctuary Christian Fellowship: 644 words
Littleton Baptist Church: 943 words
Bear Valley Fellowship Nazarene: 1,077 words
Brave Church: 720 words
Zion Temple: 258 words
Southern Evangelical Seminary: 857 words
Church in the City: 600 words
Tabernacle Pentecostal: 653 words
No mention of Love
Life Church in SC: 478 words
Red Rocks Baptist Church: 482 words
Rocky Mountain Presbyterian Church: 316 words
Fellowship Bible Church in SC: 1,845 words
LifePoint Church in SC: 484 words
Angelical Church of North America: 524 words
Victory Church: 803 words
Cloverdale Church: (Love is in Our Name) 398 words
- This one was the most disappointing. The sign outside their church says, “Cloverdale Church, Love is in our name”. This intrigued me, so I googled them. Unfortunately, what I found was that LOVE might be in their name, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere in their mission statement.
Summary 29 churches / 26,300 words / 40 mentions of love. (=o.15%)
God’s love for humanity. (Ten mentions)
- Only one church mentions an Agape kind of love.
- Two are simply quoting John 3:16.
- One church says three times that humans are unlovable, but God somehow does it anyway.
Believers’ love for God. (Four mentions)
Although Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God, it doesn’t seem that important in these mission statements.
- A church of many nations expressing love toward God…
- We speak out of love for Jesus Christ…
- We want to make and equip disciples who will endeavor to love God…
- A church in its most simple form is a group of people who meet regularly to love God.
Christians’ love for each other (Five mentions)
- As a church we will strive to love others.
- One way that we will love others is by developing close relationships with people in the church.
- We speak out of love for them…
- “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
- The Lord’s Supper is a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves.
Christians’ love for the unsaved world (Five mentions)
- We want to make and equip disciples who will love people.
- We want to be a church that loves the city.
- Every human personality is worthy of respect and Christian love.
- A church that loves ferociously, seeing the value of the human soul as paramount.
- A church is a group of people who meet regularly to… love people and make disciples.
Generic Love is an indistinct trait or act of love. (Ten mentions)
- What is meant by generic love is when a congregation says that “God is perfect in love” but does not also say what the attributes of “perfect love” are. We have no idea of what that really means.
- What exactly is “Divine love“ and how does it relate to exercising spiritual gifts?
- When a congregation says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, or that the church is to be guided by love, or that the Church works together in love and unity, there’s no explanation of what that would actually look like.
- All of these are indistinct in their meaning, rendering them practically worthless in application.
So, how does your church measure up?
Do most parishioners really know and understand what’s actually in their church’s mission statement? Do you? How important is love in your church? I would challenge you to try this exercise with your church’s mission statement. You might be surprised. You can let me know your results by contacting me at mt.toll@comcast.net.
In the words of the Black-Eyed Peas
“Where’s the love, Y’all?”
Update Jan. 1, 2026, 57 churches / 67,000 words / 175 mentions of love. (=o.26%)
Coming next:
What the world needs now it’s not getting for Christmas. Whatever happened to, “Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men”?
If christians aren’t talking about love, what is important to them?
From Where I Stand
Dec 10, 2023
Dale Crum