Comment: We should encourage one another in the Church

      Just as an introduction to the articles section, I want to make a few comments about true fellowship. Churches pull a lot of different people together. Indeed, as we read in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, we in the Church make up one Body, made of any parts. Though we are different, we should love and respect one another. Why is it that there is so much division, and suspicion in the Church? This is not just true in the Church as a whole globally - the divisions that exist between different church groups and denominations. It can also be true within individual churches. Members who focus more on their own ministries than they do on God - even if this is not obviously apparent, will work to break harmony in the Body.

        Often we put ourselves, rather than God first, despite what we may profess with our mouths in song. Such a serious deficiency causes our corporate and individual relationships with God to become dysfunctional. Those who have a specific need in the Church, perhaps for example, those suffering from loneliness, might be particularly aware of this. A genuine sense of sympathetic pastorship from the leadership may be sorely lacking, whilst members of the rest of the body of the Church might seem to be too busy to notice those who are suffering.

         Although I paint a pessimistic picture, I do so to spur us all on. We need to both genuinely love God and also genuinely love one another. This will mean a need for personal humility, and a sacrifice of time and effort. As long as we are on this earth, and there is imperfection in the world, then there will continue to be people who suffer in the Church, and indeed outside it. However, Churches and leaders that do want to be open about their shortcomings, can follow some of the better examples that we do find in certain churches.

Church should be a place of refuge and hope, and of healing. We must be a healing fellowship, and in so doing we will help not only our own, but also those outside our Body, who are in need of the message of the Gospel. That message is communicated through our words and through the way we treat people. We share about the salvation from sin that Christ represents, and we also share the love of Christ with people in practical ways, through kind and thoughtful words and actions.