31 Days of Loving the Church

Welcome to October 1, the beginning of a new series here on the blog!  I am linking up with Emily and others as we write for 31 days on a variety of things.  Each blogger has chosen her own theme according to her passion or interest.  From what I've gathered on the different sponsoring blogs, many, many inspiring series are starting up today.  I encourage you to go visit others as often as you can in the coming weeks.  I hope you will check back here, too!


On this first day, I thought I would take a minute to explain what I will write about and why.  If you're new here, you should know that I am a pastor's wife.  But more importantly, I am a member of a local church as well as the Church universal (the church as manifested in throughout the world).  I love my church in particular (lucky for me!), but I also love the Church, as defined in the Bible and instituted by Jesus.  
I was recently asked what is the best part of being the wife of a pastor.  My answer was that  I really LOVE to LOVE the people of the church.  No way am I perfect at it; I fail often.  I struggle, and have struggled at various times, to love the church when things aren't going the way I think they should go.
The thing I always come back to is the fact that the church  isn't mine, or the pastor's or even the elders' or the deacons'.  The church belongs to Jesus and He has promised to build it; He cannot let it go, for it is His bride!  I want to learn all I can about promoting the peace and purity of the thing for which Jesus willingly laid down His life.  We'll talk this month about what it looks like to really love the church, in ways both practical and theoretical.
Thanks for coming along with me on this journey!  I'm both intimidated and excited about the idea of blogging on one topic for 31 days straight.
Here's to all of us learning and growing in the coming days and weeks!

 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.  

Colossians 1:18