This verse has become the mandate for Jenny & I in the rest of our time here on PEI. We want to strengthen our local Church while we are here. We have agreed to focus on this and this alone while we are here. The importance of the visible Church of Christ has never been more important to me than it is now. I realize that bitterness to something Jesus has the utmost concern concern and care for is not a sign of great maturity but is altogether shameful.
If the Church "sucks", it is because "we" suck. That includes our friends, wives, children, and all who actually make up the Church. Only when Christians have a proper view of the Church will we strive to better it and make it what Jesus intended it to be. People outside the Church should be envious of what they see inside; a community unaffected by personal desires and selfishness, a community transparent and willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of each other. A community of servants.
Jenny & I aren't naive enough to think that this will happen overnight. It takes a strategy to turn people around. It has taken years to change my thoughts on the subject even! We are praying and noting ideas to shift the current situation into something better.
Focus and discipline are words that will have to take on lives of their own as we strive to strengthen our local Body.
Last Sunday, Jenny got to share a timely exhortation (click -->HERE<-- to listen). What would it look like if this were the hearts cry of all who call upon the name of the Lord? We can sit and think about the answers, or we can take it and run with it.
Jenny and I are sick of criticizing, it is now time to edify.