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.

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:

1. God’s love for humanity (including Jesus’ love for humanity)
2. Believers’ love for God
3. Christians’ love for each other
4. Christians’ love for the unsaved world
5. 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

• We want to be a community where people can embrace the love of Jesus (1).
• We want to make and equip disciples who will endeavor to love God (2) and love people (4) 
• We want to be a church that loves the city (4). 

Church of God of Prophecy: A whopping 7,000 words

• …and the great love He has for His people. (1)
• “But the fruit of the Spirit is love…” (5)
• “For God so loved the world…” (1)
• The Church… is to be guided by love. (5)

Ascension Lutheran Church: 266 words

• Love of the Triune God: (5)
• God loves (1) the people of the world, even though they are sinful, rebel against Him and do not deserve His love (1?). He sent Jesus, His Son, to love (1?) the unlovable and save the ungodly.

Love mentioned three times

The Church: 566 words

• As a church we will strive to love others (3) with the kind of love that Christ displayed to us. (1)  One way that we will love others (3) is by developing close relationships with people in and also new to the church.

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.

• The less-essentials are important because we embrace the whole Word of God; but we also recognize there may be different interpretations and applications. We respect varying points of view, provided the essentials are not compromised.
• We speak the truth to define our faith and extend it to others, but we speak out of love for them (3),  and out of love for Jesus Christ (2),  who said, “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (3).

Love mentioned twice

Calvary Church Englewood: 1,235 words

• Both husbands and wives are responsible to God for spiritual nurture and vitality in the home, but God has given to the man primary responsibility to lead his wife and family in accordance with the servant-leadership and sacrificial love (5) characterized by Jesus Christ. This principle of male headship should not be confused with, nor give any hint of, domineering control. Rather, it is to be the loving (5), tender and nurturing care of a godly man who is himself under the kind and gentle authority of Jesus Christ.

Grace Christian Church in SC: 309 words

• We believe that loving relationships (5) should permeate every area of church life. Our relationships… should be motivated by the unconditional agape love of God (1).

Elevation Church in SC: 485 words

• Every human personality is… worthy of respect and Christian love. (4)
• The Church works together in love (5) intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ.

“The Relentless Church” in SC: 304 words

• A church of many nations expressing love toward God (2).
• A church that loves ferociously (4), seeing the value of the human soul as paramount.

Restoration Community Church: 406 words

• A church is a group of people who meet regularly to love God (2), love people (4) and make disciples.

Love mentioned once

South Fellowship: 1,780

• “We believe the church is at its best when it serves, sacrifices, and loves… (5)”

Living Waters Tabernacle: 1,025 words

• We believe that the Holy Spirit has endowed the Church with His gifts. These gifts are to be regulated by the Spirit, according to God’s Word. Divine love (5) should be the motivation factor in exercising these gifts.

Sanctuary Christian Fellowship: 644 words

• He empowers us to do things we couldn’t do ourselves, like forgive people, love (5), believe, and serve.

Littleton Baptist Church: 943 words

• Quoting John 3:16. (1)

Bear Valley Fellowship Nazarene: 1,077 words

• Regeneration, or the new birth, is that gracious work of God whereby the moral nature of the repentant believer is spiritually quickened and given a distinctively spiritual life, capable of faith, love (5), and obedience.

Brave Church: 720 words

• “The church’s members are to work together in love (3) and unity…

Zion Temple: 258 words

• We believe in the love of God (1).

Southern Evangelical Seminary: 857 words

• We believe in one God who is Creator of heaven and earth, who is infinite Spirit, light, love (5), and truth; eternal, almighty, and infallible in all things.

Grace Fellowship: 811 words

• We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love (5).

Church in the City: 600 words

• We believe in God the Father, an infinite personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love, (5).

Tabernacle Pentecostal: 653 words

• We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. (5) 

(Yes, these three churches have the exact same statement. Many parts of their mission statements are identical as well. When I googled the “we believe in God the Father” phrase over 100 churches used the exact same wording. Have to wonder if any of them actually put any original thought into their mission statements or whether they just copied and pasted from some other church’s statement of faith.)

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.

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?”

Coming next:

So, what do we make of all this? If love is perceived to be an important component of christianity, why do so many churches neglect to include it in their mission statement? Next, we’ll dive a bit deeper into what church mission statements actually emphasize. If they’re not talking about love, what is important to them?

 

 

From Where I Stand

Dale Crum