Honest Question

I believe that, for all of us as followers of Jesus, we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. This command in Scripture is tied closely with loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind an strength. I think we should strive to do this both individually and collectively as the church.

In your experience, who do you think loves and cares about you more, the world or the church?

My Dog

Howdy Eagle and welcome to the forum.

I get the STRONG impression there is more to this than we see on the surface. I'm going to wait until I see the whole story.

But also, yeah, my dog. My ambition is to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.

People shouldn't be surprised to get a dog dish for Christmas from you or a chew toy.

Is this like asking:

Who loves you more? The water? Or the steam?

My cat.

touché

The world doesn't love, it just takes.

Honestly, I have loyal folks in both camps. Hard to discern who cares more.

So your cat loves you more than your wife??!!??

The true church that’s built on the ROCK.

What is your experience?

The world (i.e., the governments, organizations, etc.) care more about things on a macro level. Almost no one wants war, starvation, etc. National governments (excluding the tyrannical/very corrupt ones) generally want their people to be well taken care (though different political parties have different views/approaches).

Churches focus more on the community and provide more personalized care to the individual. However, almost anyone who attends church (except maybe the mega churches) knows that resources (in terms of time and money) are limited. While Jesus said a true friend would die for his friend, most people are not self-sacrificing for just anyone.

So, I believe there are limitations if one expects sacrificial-type love and care from an outside organization or church. I believe both provide "bare minimum" type of support (e.g., government assistance, cooked meals if one is sick, etc.), which by no means is something to laugh about by the way.

Thanks for this question. In my personal experience, especially lately, has forced me to rethink a lot of things. I find that the church (here defined as the body of Christ, i.e. believers, not the institutional church) cares more about my spiritual well being in terms of being in Christ vs. being lost in sin.

In virtually every other way, however, I find that the world is more understanding, more caring on a personal level, and FAR more generous than Christians--especially pastors.

I'm curious what others have experienced in this respect.

I'm not sure that I understand your question. Can you elaborate please?

In your OP, you're asking a very complex question in a short sentence. Not sure if you are aware if it's complex but i also gave you a complex but simple answer to your question.

If i take this example to answer your question, then my experience is similar to yours.
However, i am a bit confused by your separation of the world and the church (which you defined as the body of Christ). This is also why i gave you an example between the different states of water. Liquid or steam.
Because i don't see a difference.
In the worst examples of human experience which involve war, torture, cruelty etc, you can find the most inspiring people who make you forget of all the pain and just make you be even more grateful to God.
Similarly, you can also find the most evil experiences in places like Vatican for example.
So, i don't see clear borders like you do, that's why i was a bit confused by your original question.

Can you provide a few examples of this, how you found the world more generous and caring?

How are you defining "the world"?

Reminds me of the one time when I volunteered with campus ministry boxing Thanksgiving turkeys/meals for low income folks, and my roommate who was not Christian told me these people need systemic/government help and that the Thanksgiving meal doesn't really help them.

I've found that the gay community (through my coworker) is a very tight knit group and they help eachother out and care about eachother greatly (more likely to invite strangers and treat them as family), bending over backwards to help eachother etc.

There may also be cultural differences. Maybe some cultures are communal and this spills over into church.