What is the purpose of the church?

Today we got into a pretty heated discussion in one of my classes about what should have been simple, the observance of the three simple rules: do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. We only got through the first two rules. Why? Because some people think they are so unrealistic that we shouldn't even try. What type of Church is that going to lead to? By the grace of God we at least need to try. The decrepited state of some of our relationships screams this at us.

Of course during the course of the discussion the topic of loving others came up. Some said that we need to limit our love towards others so that it doesn't harm us. Aparently I missed this rule in my "How to be a Good Christian" handbook. The conversation continued to the point where it was concluded that we need the church to hold us accountability for our love towards others.

That didn't sit very well for me. I've put myself in more than one dangerous situation when I was pouring love out to others. And there were pleanty of people who protested, but in the end I did it anyway. Sometimes other's fears get in the way of their hearts. We need to let love guide our actions, love towards others and love towards our neighbors.

And now we get to the kicker. The point was then presented and elaborated upon that sometimes we need to please the congergation in order to keep money flowing in so the church can at least help someone. So if the church has ill feelings towards helping someone (like hurricane victims or AIDS patients) because they are different then "us" then just don't help them if its going to cost you attendance and income.

What is the point of the church then? An eltisit organization which picks and chooses who to love by their class and comfortbility? I would like to point out that Acts 2 helped pleanty of people without a working income or budget. We need to stop having an us vs. them mentality in the church and live in solidarity with all people. No concerns with money. No cocnerns with limiting our love to those who we deem worthy. Love was given freely by God and thus should be freely given to all people.

Because we are LOVED!