My friend John was a flockless shepherd, a pastor lacking a congregation. It’s an awkward place in life for a preacher to find himself. Like being a lover without a sweetheart, a physician with no one to help, a teacher with no pupils.

“I have to preach,” he said to me. “Preaching is everything to me! Preaching is my passion.”

I said, “That’s not good, John. Preaching was never meant to be your passion. Jesus Christ is supposed to be your passion.”

Give John credit; he heard that. “Wow,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been hit in the face with a bucket of ice water. Thank you for bringing me back to reality.”

Personally, I’m not sure the Lord calls anyone to preach, as the expression goes. He calls us into His service to do whatever He commands. That may indeed be to preach the gospel in pastoring or evangelism, but as with my situation, often the specifics change. After 42 years of pulpit ministry, I moved into administration and the pastoral care of pastors. I still preach, but irregularly and in churches everywhere. Yet, I’m still in the ministry, still wearing the uniform, still heeding the Master’s commands.

We’re supposed to love the Lord our God supremely, first of all and most of all. Everything else comes next. Including a deep love for His church.

Now, just as my friend John focused too intently on preaching and possibly put it ahead of his loyalty to Christ, some do that with the church.

I was listening on my car radio to Wallace, another pastor friend, who was making an evangelistic appeal. He said something like, “If you are lost, if you are seeking direction in life, you are carrying guilt over a life of rebellion and neglect, you want to find new meaning and forgiveness and purpose in life, my friend, you need a new relationship….” At this point, I knew what was coming. He would tell the listeners about Jesus Christ and salvation.

But I was wrong.

He said, “My friend, you need a new relationship with the church.”

I almost drove off the road. I called out into the empty automobile, “No, Wallace! It’s Jesus Christ! He is the Savior. Only after giving your life to Christ can we have a relationship with the church.”

Pastors will tell you it’s much more common to find people who denigrate preaching and discount the place of the church in today’s world.

Now, just because some people get it wrong and exaggerate or minimalize our devotion to the church does not take away the need for us to get it right. Christ first, the church second.

Nevertheless, let us not miss this point: we are to love the church of the Lord Jesus Christ with a deep devotion.

More and more, the older I get and the more experience I amass in the ministry, I am convinced that the great multitudes of Christians never comprehend how much they are meant to love the Lord’s church.

Pastors are told to “shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28) Husbands are told to “love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.” (Ephesians 5:25)

Surely it follows that if Christ loved the church so much, we should value it highly. To be Christlike–the goal of every believer–means to treasure what He treasures and to turn away from what He disdains.

Scripture calls the church the Bride of Christ, the Building of God, and the Household of faith. The Lord spares no words in stressing to us the crucial role this institution plays in His plan.

We are to love the church. Big-time.

As a senior in college, I had been called into the ministry but was having difficulty finding churches that would let me preach. Here I was a Baptist minister going to a Methodist college; the churches didn’t quite know what to make of me, and I can’t blame them.

I preached at jail services and nursing homes and the occasional small church. One Saturday afternoon, my girlfriend accompanied me to a football game on the campus of a local Christian college noted for turning out Baptist preachers. As it happened, we sat behind two of them, college students serving small churches as pastor.

As the afternoon went on, we could not help overhearing their conversation as they discussed their churches. Nothing they said was positive or complimentary. They spent two hours running down their congregations, trying to top one another with accounts of the backwardness and ignorance of their people.

I was ashamed to be in the same profession as these men. That afternoon, I promised the Lord that if He would allow me to serve as pastor, I would never ridicule the church or consider myself too high and mighty for the congregation, no matter its size or wealth or influence. I have tried to live by that commitment.

Love the church, leader. Then, teach the people to love it.

Loving the Lord’s church will head off a multitude of problems in the congregation before they arise.

Since I love the church, I will be careful how I treat it.

Since I love the church, I will honor the people who make up its membership.

Since I love the church, I will not force my will upon it.

Since I love the church, I will not hurt its members trying to get my way.

Since I love the church, I will pray for its members and its ministry.

Since I love the church, I will deal with problems quickly and healthily.

Since I love the church, I will work for its unity and strive for its effectiveness.

Since I love the church, I will guard its reputation in the community.

Since I love the church, I will be careful of my own actions in the community since I am one of its leaders and people will make decisions about this church based on what I do and say.

Since I love the church, I will pour myself into making it stronger, its members more Christlike, and myself more able.

In a Newsweek feature (October 15, 2007) concerning women and leadership, Agnes Gund tells her story of leadership in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. Charged with raising 800 million dollars to build the largest museum of its kind in the country, she writes, “The most important thing for me was working with every department of MoMA. It is a lot of work to get everyone to agree.”

Every pastor knows how true that is, on a smaller scale.

Gund continues, “You have to have people who love the institution to make something this big work. MoMA trustees and staff wanted to see the building happen. The staff especially had to sacrifice a lot to get the building to happen, and I was anxious about that.”

Notice that: “You have to have people who love the institution to make something this big work.”

All the bells went off when I read that. This is the very reason some churches self-destruct from conflict and controversy: the leadership does not love the church enough to make something work. What they love is their own opinions, their convictions, their viewpoint. What they love is the bickering; yes, there are people who feed on controversy as a vulture delights in carrion. What they love is the conquest, of having their point of view prevail. What they love is the image of power, not the privilege of service.

What they do not love is the church, otherwise they would not subject it to such brutality.

Agnes Gund emphasizes that her staff had to sacrifice to make the building happen. Sacrifice follows love.

If I love the church of Jesus Christ, I will not hesitate to make sacrifices for her. Now, make that statement to the average leader of our Baptist churches and he/she would agree. However, in most cases, they would be thinking in terms of sacrificing time and money. They’re perfectly willing to give up those, even though that can be costly and difficult.

But that’s only part of the story.

The person who loves the church of Jesus Christ will also be willing to give up his own ideas as to how to make it work, to give up some precious conviction in order to protect its unity and strengthen its ministry. He will be willing to give up his rights, his prominence, his ego, and his own vision for the church. He or she is one member of a large body, made up of many members, of which Christ alone is the head.

One of the saddest sights any of us ever see is a person suffering from neurological or muscular disorders that prevent his limbs from working in harmony. We use the word “spastic” to describe the jerky motions of the individual’s body.

Watch the way some congregations operate and that word comes to mind. Each part of the body seems to have a mind of its own, with none taking orders from the head and none in sync with the other. Such a congregation becomes a spectacle to outsiders who know this is not how the Lord’s church–or any other organization–should operate.

“Dear Lord, give us people who love you supremely and therefore love your church. Out of that love, let us be willing to protect her and to bless her and do all we can to make her effective in thy service. Amen.”