What can churches do to become a better reflection of Christianity?
What can churches do to become a better reflection of Christianity?
1) LOVE ABOVE ALL. I grew up in a tight-knit religious family. My weekends and vacations were spent at our church. As much as I enjoyed our church activities and thankful that we were given opportunities to travel and evangelize or learn how to, I dread the “un-Christian ways” of the adult church members. I remember them arguing about finances and sometimes the women gossiped about each other. While I felt peace and love amongst my peers, I felt like there was too much hatred amongst the adults. As members of a church, we should love each other and alongside we should give respect and service to the church (people) (Towns, pg. 101). Our duties as Christians go beyond going to church every Sunday. Christians nowadays focus on the regularity of their church (place of worship) visits but half of the time neglecting their responsibilities towards members of the church (people). We must never forget that what we do to our fellowmen, we do to God. If we are disrespectful to our parents, we are disrespecting God too. If we criticize our neighbors, we are criticizing God too. Equally, when we help our fellowmen, we are helping God too. When we lend a hand, show love and generosity to others, we are doing the same to God. If we love each other, everything else--- respect, service, unity etc – follows. When we let love rule our hearts, love will rule our church. And because love rules, there will be no place for greed, no unnecessary arguments on church finances, no church member gossips, no hatred, no jealousy and what not…and we can all focus on reciprocating God’s love to us. By doing these, we strengthen our ties as a church; we create a stronger bond with each other and at the same time we power-proof our ties and relationship with God. By demonstrating to each other acts of love, respect, service etc., we likewise show a reflection of a better Christian, a reflection of love-empowered
1) LOVE ABOVE ALL. I grew up in a tight-knit religious family. My weekends and vacations were spent at our church. As much as I enjoyed our church activities and thankful that we were given opportunities to travel and evangelize or learn how to, I dread the “un-Christian ways” of the adult church members. I remember them arguing about finances and sometimes the women gossiped about each other. While I felt peace and love amongst my peers, I felt like there was too much hatred amongst the adults. As members of a church, we should love each other and alongside we should give respect and service to the church (people) (Towns, pg. 101). Our duties as Christians go beyond going to church every Sunday. Christians nowadays focus on the regularity of their church (place of worship) visits but half of the time neglecting their responsibilities towards members of the church (people). We must never forget that what we do to our fellowmen, we do to God. If we are disrespectful to our parents, we are disrespecting God too. If we criticize our neighbors, we are criticizing God too. Equally, when we help our fellowmen, we are helping God too. When we lend a hand, show love and generosity to others, we are doing the same to God. If we love each other, everything else--- respect, service, unity etc – follows. When we let love rule our hearts, love will rule our church. And because love rules, there will be no place for greed, no unnecessary arguments on church finances, no church member gossips, no hatred, no jealousy and what not…and we can all focus on reciprocating God’s love to us. By doing these, we strengthen our ties as a church; we create a stronger bond with each other and at the same time we power-proof our ties and relationship with God. By demonstrating to each other acts of love, respect, service etc., we likewise show a reflection of a better Christian, a reflection of love-empowered