JesusWalk Bible Study Forum: Q1. A Congregation's First Love - JesusWalk Bible Study Forum

Q1. How can a local congregation lose its "first love" for Jesus? What are the signs of genuine love for Jesus in worship and ministry? How does the lack of love show up? How can a congregation regain this love?

The local congregation can lose its "first love" by letting the message of the Bible be lost in activities and organizations. The attempt to make God's message more acceptable to the people by watering down what God says to keep others from thinking being a Christian is too hard often becomes a problem. The signs of genuine love are shown by the attitude of the people toward the other members of the congregation and their desire to bring sinners into the family of God. It is so important that visitors are made to feel welcome and wanted or they will never come back. Disintrest in those seeking God, no matter how many times they have attempted to find Him will show a lack of God's love within the church membership. Exclusiveness which eliminates new-comers, pride in the membership and their accomplishments without giving credit to God for whatever these might be, and self-satisfaction over what the church has accomplished. all show the lack of love for others. A congregation can regain its first love by remembering the Great Commission and making it uppermost in what the congregation does.

Our church recently suffered the loss of our Pastor because of sin in his life. He stepped down and when the church had the time of reflection we realized that we had lost our first love. We took more joy in inviting people to church to see ou Pastor and to see our loving congregation, which were truths, but not what we should be seeking. We should have told folks about Jesus.

We were too busy with ministries, but he problem was they were for man's purpose and agenda. It is hard in this world to stay focused. Most churches have "their plan" in mind. If we honestly search our hearts, we will probably have to admit truth to that statement. I believe the reason we don't see more miracles as the early church did is because our churches are out for their purpose and not God's.

We have to HUMBLY seek His will and focus on God's plan not ours. I guess it is getting back to basics. Sometimes we worship God a little bit too lightly and fail to see His glory and how mighty He is to us. We should show much more respect. But our God is merciful and guides us in our growth ever closer to His image. Priaise to Him!

The Bible says, that "we love Him, because He first loved us". And I find it so true in my life, that when I fail to remember what He has done for me in the remarkable demonstration of His love on the cross, I also fail to love Him back. If I fail to recognize His blessings in my everyday, given to me only because He loves me, I fail to love back. If I start relying on my own efforts and my own righteousness and stop relying on His grace, I fail to love back. And also when I stubbornly perceed in my sin instead of repenting and letting His love cover my sin, my love for God grows cold. These are just observations from my own life, which I also think can be true for the Body of Christ. And these are just some of many causes we can see today`s Church so far from Her first love.

I think we can lose our first love through pride and neglect. Not spending time with the one you love.

I read once you obey the one you love so if we love Him we will obey Him.

A lack of love or losing our first love can show up as sin in our lives and attitudes and also how we treat one another. I think it is important for people to see us obey His Word and to love one another. They will know we are Christians by our love.

I try to repent everyday of my sin and to spend more time focused on Him and not circumstances be they good or bad. I believe He wants to work a wonder through each of us and wants intimate fellowship with each member of His family. I hope I appreciate that everyday. What a God we worship. How could we put anything above Him except through the total depravity of the human heart.

God Bless and keep pressing towards the goal set before us.
Jen

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How can a church lose it's first love for God? By becoming so imersed in "programs" and "events", and "fellowship meetings"--that end up in just fun and games rather than in sharing Christ with one another! When we draw back into our "group", and ignore those who are visitors or show a need, we have no love of Christ in our lives! We become just another organization and lose our reason for being--loving and SERVING one another in the spirit of our Lord! The signs of loving God are our willingness to do anything that will serve His body, the Church. When we pick and choose only the "prestigious" jobs rather than being interested in serving others, we are just wanting to serve ourselves! How we greet visitors and try to let them know they are welcome in our church shows a bit of how interested we are in them as persons and in their need of worshipping the Lord God. Not only these, but we need to reach out to others we meet day by day to let them see there is something they are missing by not coming to the Lord. In other words, our lack of love for God shows up in our lack of love for other persons! How to recover that love of God? By true repentance, turning back to God to ask for forgiveness, then follow His guidance in love.

A church will lose its first love for Jesus when people become preoccupied with numbers, with programs, and especially when they resist change for the sake of their sense of comfort and stability. Rather than being open to fresh "wind" and fresh fire that people who have that first love for Jesus bring - the church will quench it, become legalistic or formalistic.

The signs of genuine love are found in what I call the "WOW" church we find in Acts 2 and 4.
W- Worship - they met consistently for prayer and sharing of the Lord's supper, they praised God.
O - Oneness, unity, they shared all things in common, grace was upon them, no one was in need
W - Word - the teaching and testimony of the apostles was done with great authority, miracles were happening in their midst and many were added to the church. These are the qualities that demonstrate that first love God desires - love for God, love for each other and love for sharing the Gospel.

And how to regain that first love - let go of our preset ideas and expectations of what church is - put our focus on Jesus, repent of our loss of first love, pray and fast and pray some more until something happens, invite Jesus into our midst.

A Church, or congregation, will lose its 'first love' by becoming more focused on 'what' rather then on 'who'; Any time we take our eyes off of Jesus, the Cross, and the Blood, and focus more on works, performance, etc. we have left our first love. Jesus must always be at the center of all we are, and do.

Genuine love for Jesus, reflects the same; 'Focus on Him, and His Word'

This doing away with our 'first love' will result in a falling away from our purpose here, which is to reflect the love of Jesus to a lost and dying people....and becoming no different than the world.

We as Christians are told, we are the 'salt' in this world...that which preserves; When we lose our 'saltiness' and have nothing more to offer than programs, meetings, and a country-club atmosphere, we have missed the mark.

To regain our first love...our purpose as well, we must return to basics...
That is Jesus...and Him alone.

Q1. How can a local congregation lose its "first love" for Jesus? What are the signs of genuine love for Jesus in worship and ministry? How does the lack of love show up? How can a congregation regain this love?

a. The local congregation loses its first love by turning inward. It becomes a holy huddle.
By this I mean it takes its focus off the love of Jesus and becomes more focused on numbers and programs, activities and inward meetings .

b. The signs of genuine love for Jesus are love for others is without prejudice of race, or education. It is an attitude of total love for Jesus and wanting to share that love with others. You can not out give the Lord. What is freely given to you must be freely given to others. If you are giving with resentment or anger then you are not giving as the Lord wants. He wants cheerful givers.

c. Lack of love shows up, by putting programs in front of people and by getting lost in wanting to build your empire instead of Gods, at the expense of others. It even goes as far as sheep stealing to build it self up.

d. For a congregation can regain its first love we need to let God do the leading as we practice the Great Commission and then focus on building others up. It is important to take care of those God entrusts you with. That’s the Shepard’s job; to disciple people, build people up in their giftedness so they have Christ-esteem and then send them out to win others to Christ. This doesn’t always happen, we as people tend to bring others into our congregations and then blind each other by our own light.

Q1. How can a local congregation lose its "first love" for Jesus? What are the signs of genuine love for Jesus in worship and ministry? How does the lack of love show up? How can a congregation regain this love?

A local church loses is "first love" when:
a) it focuses more on numbers, programs, and dollars than Jesus
When people use their gifts to bring glory and power to themselves
c) When the worship becomes more of another form of entertainment than worshiping Christ
d) when we water down our beliefs until we have no beliefs so that we are acceptable to everyone and offend no one.
What are the signs of genuine love for Jesus in worship and ministry?
a) When people demonstrate that they don't "run" anything but facilitate many things
When worship of focused
c) When worship is emotional
d) When classes and programs welcome all and promote personal growth
How does lack of love show up?
a) dead worship
closemindedness
c) Decreased attendance
d) people become territorial
How do we regain in?
By reestablishing a personal and meaningful individual and corporate relationship with Christ.

susan

We Just had this preached in our church today ( Sunday 21st September) our pastor taught us we need to get back into falling inlove with God all over again, and by being in love with God, we need to move more into the presence on God. We all can not loose the presence of God in our churches. As we need to have this personally within ourselves. Each And everyone of us. as our pastor put it, no more ONE NIGHT STANDS, WE NEED LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. this showed alot of us that we were not as close to God as we thought we were. But made us look within our lives, and bring us closer to God.
He wants a loving bride, not a ONE NIGHT STAND.

God Bless
Julie

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Be tolerant of false prophesy and immorality from members of the congregation.
What are the signs of genuine love for Jesus in worship and ministry?
Not enduring evil men; putting to the test those who claim to be apostles; love, faith, service, perseverance;
How does the lack of love show up?
holding false teaching or tolerating those who teach falsely
How can a congregation regain this love?
repent and return to true teachings; reject false teaching

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How does a congergation lose it's "first Love?"
I feel that a congregation begins to lose that love when the shepherd of the congregation no longer is being a good leader and example for them. They lose sight of what their real purpose is, to be able to take the WORD of GOD with them and not leave it in the church.

Genuine love shows when even with a poor leader at the puplit, the congregation continues to follow the teachings in the Bible in relation to service to other (the Beatitudes)

The lack of love shows up when they start to think of themselves first and others last if at all. the congregation can regain the love by returning to the scripture teachings.
God Bless
Richard

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Hi Everyone,
First I want to say "Thank You" to all who are willing to share their experience, strength, and hope on this forum. Often when I start reading what you have written in answer to Pastor Ralph's questions I begin to tear up; my guess is that you've touched me emotionally; which is a growth experience for me.
How do we loose our first love? Simply quit putting First Things First. What does it look like when it happens? Distraction! How to get it back? Return to putting First Things First. God is First. But, I mean pre-eminence. Of course He is The Alpha and Omega.
Love ...Bro. Al

We should be aware of false teachings and loose morals that would stray us away from God.Sin in the Church can cause your love for God and others to get cold.Also turning our focus on oneself.only thinking of yourself,having know love for others.The lack of prayer causes the church to be cold and callous.Prayer will make you face your own sin.Pray that your love for others will become greater.
We must share Gods love to the hopeless.We must sow Gods word here on earth and in our community,bearing the fruits of love.
The love of God manifests through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.The Church should live only for Jesus Christ and his teachings.Restoration is through Him.

A congregation can grow cold and lose their zeal for God. A church can be busy doing much to benefit the church and the community but for the wrong reason. It should be based on the love for God and others.

Signs of genuine love for Jesus in worship and ministry will show up in our committement and our LOVE(love in action,not words) for others especially those in the household of faith. The lack of love shows up when there is no enthusiasm and we lose sight of the seriousness of sin. We can regain this love by returning to our Frist Love (God). We have to have a repentant heart. Thy shall love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, soul and body! [color="red"]GOD HAS TO BE FIRST IN OUR LIVES![/color]

Q1. How can a local congregation lose its "first love" for Jesus? What are the signs of genuine love for Jesus in worship and ministry? How does the lack of love show up? How can a congregation regain this love?

When a church losses its focus on what its purpose is, to many times we focus on the things that we want instad of the needs of others and that happens when we take our focus off of Jesus Christ the head of the church and the one that has redeemed us.

How can a local congregation lose its "first love" for Jesus? By becoming complacent; by just "going to church", going through the motions, replacing their obligations of worship with other menial things; by becoming numb.
What are the signs of genuine love for Jesus in worship and ministry? Following His word; putting away desires for those menial things; making sacrifices in your routine; spreading the Word.
How does the lack of love show up? By losing love for those around them; by neglecting fellowship; chomping at the bit to hear "Amen", so you can be at home in time for the kickoff!
How can a congregation regain this love? Make sacrifices to be with the Lord. The more time I spend with Jesus and in fellowship, listening to the message, hearing testimony and witness to reinforce my own budding belief, His love is filling my heart and life. I just step into the sanctuary and tears well up to see all these different people ~ and they're on our side!

By talerating false teaching in the church, not wanting to get into the word of God and promitting gossip in the church. Praising God with a true heart. Put Christ in the center of the church's working.
The lack of love show up when the church people talerate false teach. wrong kinds of moral and not following God precepts. To get Christ first love back into the church or your own life is to confess to God and ask Him to guide you back to your first love.