Think about the people in your church. Think about the people you see on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Is there one person in your congregation that you would give your life for? Are there 5? How many are there that you would die to protect? Now compare that to the size of your congregation. We are called in our churches to become like brothers & sisters, to become friends. To have those blood ties to your fellow believer.
John 15:9-17
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command.15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
We are called to love one another. We are also to love even our enemies.
Matthew 5:43-48
43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
God often will call us places that make us uncomfortable, so we have to rely on Him more and more. If someone is a wealthy man to sell everything he owns, if this scares you then He’s probably calling you to do this. If you are someone who is comfortable with being silent in a group, He might call you to lead a group. If you are comfortable in your theater seat, then He may be calling you to live in a mud hut in the African wilderness. Maybe you're living your life with an allegiance to Christ, instead of a relationship with Him. If it makes you uncomfortable to preach a message that might turn some away, He could be calling you to preach a less watered down version. If you are stuck on the NIV translation, maybe you should pick up The Message and read it with a grain of salt. If you’re Pentecostal maybe you should seek out a Baptist church. If you are comfortable not going to church, He is calling you to find a church.
I know there are a lot of people, myself included, that do see lots of cracks in the foundations of the church. Some of us do not like church because of the hypocrites who reside within. To avoid a church would be hypocrisy in and of itself. It would state that someone who is a faith professing Christian would claim that there’s a group of people who are unreachable by God. The self-centered Christianity that most of us despise becomes what we believe. What would give us the right to deprive people of God’s love? What gives us the right to deprive them of our revelations of His word? We are called to question everything, so we have to rely on God to allow us to realize when we are wrong too.
If you see the cracks in the foundations, things that need to change, maybe you’re called to help repair those cracks or maybe when you bend down to repair those cracks, and come to the corner stone, you’ll find out that you’re the one who is fractured.
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