Thoughts & opinion from the southampton vineyard team
People
by Matt Hyam on 12th March, 2010
People.
Wimber, speaking as a church leader used, to say, “people do people stuff”. In other words: people are going to hurt each other: they are going to make mistakes; they are going to make stupid decisions; they are going to be predictably unpredictable; but they are also going to do wonderful things.
He also used to say, ironically, “I love the bridegroom [Jesus], but have you seen the bride [the church]”.
People. Man, we could do a great church without people.
Hmmm. Maybe not.
We’ve just done a series on the “Sermon on the Mount”. If you take out the chapter headings and the nice little “helpful” section titles and just listen to the words of a carpenter-rabbi from Nazareth, you hear the ones of someone who just loves people. He loves the ones who love him. He loves the ones who hate him. He loves the ones who tried to kill him. He loves the ones who tried to use him. He loves the ones who judge others. He loves the ones who are unfairly judged. He loved the ones who are divorced. He loves the ones who are oppressed. He loves the ones who oppress. He loves the ones who mourn; who are poor in spirit; who are without hope; the lonely; the downtrodden; the Pharisees; the zealots; the Romans; and even, most unbelievably, he seems to love Christians (although there were no Christians present at the sermon on the mount, obviously).
Christians who malign him; misrepresent him; do the most abominable things in his name; curse him; hurt him and treat him like a religious set of rules and he even loves the ones who say that he hates people.
God just loves people. Really, really, really, really, really, really loves them.
He just loves them.
He just loves us.
Maybe, just maybe, if we got the tiniest inkling of just how much he loves us then we just would not do half the things that we do.
Maybe, just maybe, if I had the tiniest inkling of how much I am loved by the creator of everything that I will ever know, then I’d be able to begin to love people like he loves them.
Imagine a church which is known for just loving people.
Now that’s a church that I’d want to be part of.
I don’t know if its what we’re known for but in my opinion its a major part of who we are. I’m always blown away by our church – they know me and they STILL love me! CRAZY! I’ve learnt SO much about love in our church! I feel TOTALLY accepted! I haddn’t known that feeling before I came here.
Its like Ben (isn’t he lovely!?) was saying today – God’s grace is awesome! And I’m grateful for His grace being reflected in our church!
Love breeds love – I feel all warm inside when I think about how so many of the people in our church choose to spend their time helping people. I hope and pray that more people than we can count are touched by Jesus’ love through us.
Love you guys! xxx