What’s Love Got to Do with It? Part deux

What’s more important than LOVE?

In his wildly popular book, Rev. Rick Warren says that love is “what matters most”.  He writes, “Because God is love, the most important lesson he wants you to learn on earth is how to love. It is in loving that we are most like him.”

Wow! What a touching statement, but is it true?

If it is true, and fundamental christians actually believe that love is so important, why is LOVE so noticeably lacking from their mission statements? Take for example, the church that Rick Warren and his wife founded in 1980. In Saddleback’s 538-word mission statement LOVE is not mentioned even once. If Warren really believes that LOVE is the most important lesson God wants us to learn in this life, why is it so noticeably lacking in Saddleback’s mission statement? Since LOVE is not mentioned in their mission statement, what is worth including?

What’s more important than LOVE?

Logic tells us that the more important something is, the more likely it will be mentioned, right? So, if church mission statements mention something more often than LOVE, it logically means that it’s more important than love. So, what could be more important than LOVE in christian doctrine? It will be no surprise to anyone who has escaped evangelical christianity that the (obvious) answer is the concept of SIN. Warren’s Saddleback Church might have neglected to mention love, but they certainly have not neglected to mention SIN, which appears eight times.

Warren’s church is not the exception, it’s the rule in christian mission statements. In a sampling of 50 church mission statements, containing over 50,000 words, LOVE was only mentioned 116 times, (with only a fraction of those actually referring to God’s love for humanity). On the other hand, sin, sinner or sinful were mentioned 317 times. If you do the math, it means that the concept of sin is roughly three times more important than love. Why is that?

Of the 50 church mission statements I read, only a few actually mention LOVE (and specifically God’s Love for humanity) more often than they do SIN. The following two churches are rare anomalies among christian churches in that their mission statements actually reflect the importance of God’s love.

 Highlands Church, Denver

• There is nothing we can do or not do to increase or decrease God’s love for us.
• We trust the flow of God’s love toward us and toward all people.
• God’s love is an inclusive and unstoppable love.
• God’s love for the world is eternal, always welcoming, and does not require any transaction on our part.

Bethany Lutheran, Denver

• We believe all people are created in God’s image and loved by God.
• God loves all humanity.
• God loves us.
• God did this to demonstrate God’s love for us.
• God’s love is unconditional.
• God’s love is never-ending.
• God’s love is unfathomable.
• God’s love is infinite.
• God’s love for us is limitless and persistent.
• Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.

These two churches alone mention God’s love for humanity more times than the other 48 mission statements combined. Once again, if LOVE is so important for christians, why is God’s love so conspicuously missing from their mission statements? Of the 50 mission statements I examined, the vast majority of them mention sin way more times than they do love. Sometimes it’s quite dramatic. For example,

• The Church of God of Prophecy: 7,000 total words with 4 mentions of love (one quoting John 3:16) and 27 references to sin.
• Angelical Church of North America: 4,100 total words with 3 mentions of love (none referring to God’s love) and 25 references to sin.
• Trinity Lutheran, Denver: 2,100 words with 2 mentions of love (neither referring to God’s love) and 25 references to sin.
• Fellowship Bible Church, SC: 1,845 total words with zero mentions of love and 19 references to sin.

These four churches alone, with a combined 15,000 words, only mention love 9 times and only once is there the slightest hint of God’s love for humanity. On the other hand, sin is referenced 97 times. So, what does that tell us about these four churches?

Which is more important love, or sin?

This is what christian mission statements are giving us rather than giving us God’s Love?

• Mankind is sinful and under justified condemnation.
• Without exception every man and woman is sinful and totally depraved.
• Humanity sinned and consequently experienced spiritual death.
• Sin then spread like a virus to all humans.
• Every human is born with a sinful and depraved nature and are separated from God.
• We believe that man is sinful, lost and deserves eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire.

Where love is thick, faults are thin.

Where love is thin faults are thick.

It’s ironic that the more fundamental a church is, the less likely they are to mention God’s love. The more progressive a church is, the more likely they will focus more on God’s love and less on sin. I’ve told this story before in a previous blog, but I think it’s worth retelling here. I stumbled on a church whose sign out front read “Cloverdale Church – Love is in our name“. So, I went to their website, found their mission statement and looked for the word LOVE. To my disappointment Love was not mentioned even once. So, I wrote to them and said, “L-O-V-E may be in your name, but it’s certainly not in your mission statement.” The church secretary responded by saying that “God’s Love is important to Cloverdale as a church”. I wanted to say, “If LOVE is so important to your congregation, then maybe, just maybe consider including it in your mission statement.” She said they were updating their mission statement, but the last time I checked nothing had changed. I wasn’t surprised.

How does your church stack up?

If you haven’t read your church’s mission statement, I would challenge you to do that. Count the number of times LOVE is mentioned and compare that to the number of times SIN is mentioned. And if you would be so kind, please share your results with me.

 

From Where I Stand

Dale Crum