If you’ve been to Good News UMC you’ve seen the above words. They’ve been in the bulletin, the newsletter and on signs in the Sanctuary. They are part of our purpose statement and they define the manner in which we carry out our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ. But they are just words unless each of us takes seriously that these are the ways in which we love God and our neighbor as ourselves. So we must not be afraid to go into our community and love people as Jesus loved them (like helping on one Saturday a month in our Angel Food Ministry). And we must not be too busy to grow in our knowledge of and love for our Lord, Jesus Christ (like coming to a Bible Study Fellowship at 9:50 am on Sunday). We must realize that God is honored when we gather and love one another in His name (like pot-luck on Wednesday evening). We must give of our time, our money, our prayers and our talents in some part of the Church so that what we have is shared (just like the early Church of Acts). And we must give God the glory for any good that comes of what we do, for it is by His love and grace that we have the blessing of being His hands and feet.

Last evening, in our Purpose Driven Church Bible Study I asked the people in attendance the one word they would use to describe the number one function of the Church. Some said fellowship (gathering with others), some said service (doing things for others) and some said evangelism (sharing Christ with others). But all agreed that all of these things are done as an _expression_ of my number one word … LOVE. It reminds me of the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 “1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.” [NLT]. Paul says it perfectly … without love what we do is meaningless.