But I have an inherent dislike for cliques. It creates a feeling of stagnant water where bacteria thrives in.
Yesterday was the first church lunch we had for a while, and I was amused at how on the left of the dining hall, the group from the smaller church gathered. In the middle were people from my church and on the right were new people.
I joked with those from my church to not just stick to themselves and sat myself firmly in front of the people from the smaller church. I was glad when the lunch started, I saw familiar faithful faces plonking themselves in front of the quieter people from the other church as well. There's always a certain joy in knowing you can trust the faithful ones to always put the Lord's people first.
As I got to know Dolores, an elderly Indian lady; Steve, the minister of the smaller church for a while and Larry, another elderly man who I was told despite his arthritis, remain ever faithful in serving the Lord be it tending to the church's garden or to be there for prayer meetings; I was filled with gladness.
Sara, my Italian flatmate, spoke a true and strong message the day before; about how sometimes, church can be an idol. If I choose to love the church as I know more than the Lord, and more than His work, it becomes an idol. It is when we meet the Lord's people anywhere and everywhere we go, people who genuinely know and love the Lord, that is where the greatest joy lies.
The gospel is outward looking and when a church becomes inward looking, and only care about serving one another within the church and themselves, that is when the church has begun to lose its way.