“Why I Love the Church” by Matthew Morine

Posted by Chris Gallagher on Jul 21, 2010 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Why I Love the Church

Sometimes people do not realize how beautiful the church is because the church has always been part of their life. People have been raised with the teachings and fellowship of a congregation. But as for me, I grew up outside of the loving body of Christ. People can focus on the problems in a local congregation, but in comparison to the issues in the world the church is truly the haven of holiness on earth.

I truly love the church because of the people. There can be one bad apple in the congregation, but if we look pass the problem people, there is a multitude of gracious Christians willing and ready to deny self in order to bless others. The atmosphere in our congregations is sweet smell of righteousness in a world of stench. One must think about all those older sisters in Christ that encourages us, all of those older men that invested in us, and all of those teens that look up to us, and all of those people that make a point in life to bless us. The church is in the people building business.

Sometimes people do not realize the love surrounding them in a congregation. Every few weeks there is typically a note of encouragement in my Bible that I seem to always leave on the front row of chairs in the auditorium. These notes are always anonymous, and typically I do not accept anonymous notes, but if they are full of praise, I take them and drink of the loving spirit that pours forth from them. It always seems that every week someone will pronounce that this week’s sermon is the “best sermon ever.” This always shocks me, but the power of God seems to always be moving in the congregation. God always places people in our churches to bless us.

I had a friend, he was a good friend, and he was training to be a minister, but through an alley of Satan, he rejected the faith and splashed into the world, and remained there for over seven years. But finally he called me up with a heart full of “prodigalness”, and stated he was returning to Bible College. I believe his words are classic, and represent the nature of the church, he prophetically announced “When I look at my life, I finally realized I was the happiest when I was serving God.” I love the church because this is always true. We were created to be in God’s community.

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About Matthew Morine:

Matthew is originally from Nova Scotia, Canada. He has a beautiful wife named Charity. Matthew has two wonderful children, Gabrielle and Noah. He has graduated from the Brown Trail School of Preaching, Heritage Christian University with his Bachelors of Arts in Biblical Studies, Lipscomb University with his Master’s of Arts in Biblical Studies and Freed-Hardeman University with his Master’s of Divinity. Presently, he is working on his Doctorate of Ministry at Harding Graduate School of Religion. His articles have appeared in the World Evangelist, the Highway to Holiness, The West Virginia Christian, The Christian Echo, The Firm Foundation, Church Growth, and the Gospel Advocate.

 

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Personal Note:

I thank Matthew for taking time to write this guest post on the Preacher’s Pen. I have never meet Matthew, but through his writings on his website (http://www.matthewmorine.com/) I can tell he is an excellent student and a great servant in the kingdom. I wish him the great blessings in his ministry and his travels. Thanks Matthew, your writing is greatly appreciated!

Chris