What Is Your LQ?

Keith Tyson July 18, 2017 1 comments

Back in the 1960s Jackie DeShannon sang What the world needs now is love, sweet love as the war in Viet Nam built to a crescendo. At about the same time (1967) we saw the “Summer of Love” which was headquartered in San Francisco and we heard a song that said If you’re goin’ to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair... there’s gonna be a love-in there. One year later the flowers must have faded because there were riots everywhere, some in the name of peace, others because a man who taught peaceful change as a lifestyle, had been assassinated. About a year later Jim Morrison of the Doors showed he knew nothing of love when he bellowed, Hello, I love you, won’t you tell me your name. In the 50 years since these musical memories were made (They really date me don’t they?) there have been many other “love” songs and many other theories on what the world needs now, but they still have not gotten it right. The world really does need love, and we as the Church are the only ones who can truly show the world  what real love is; but we often struggle or even utterly fail to show it.

What’s your LQ (Love Quotient)? Quite a few years ago I read NATURAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT by Christian Swarz. One "take away" of many that I gleaned from the wonderful little book was this truth: “Growing churches possess on the average a measurable higher ‘love quotient’ than stagnant or declining ones”.  Swarz explained that no matter what a church does for evangelism or outreach, if that church is low on love, it is not healthy. How did he define this love quotient? Well, among others he asked these three questions to form his criteria: How much time do members spend together outside of church sponsored events (such as inviting others to dinner or simply for a cup of coffee)? To what extent is the pastor (this made me alert) aware of the personal problems of the lay workers in the congregation? How much laughter (yes, laughter) is there in the church? After which he writes, “Unfeigned, practical love has a divinely generated magnetic power far more effective than evangelistic programs which depend almost entirely on verbal communication. People do not want to hear us talk about love, they want to experience how Christian love really works.”. In other words, they want us to walk our talk.

Now think about it, what is a key thing that really endears you to a church? Most likely it is the loving relationships you find there.  And ask yourself this: who is it that you remember from childhood who really exemplified Christ to you? It was most likely a sweet and loving saint who loved you no matter what, that is, a person with a very high LQ.  Another person with an extremely high love quotient was Mother Teresa, who died almost 20 years ago, yet her mission to love people with the love of her Lord, no matter who they were, lives on. It was her high calling to make sure that as many dying people as possible in her city of Kolkata, India, died knowing they were loved by someone. She said, Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. And even better, for these days when love is over-shadowed by hateful rhetoric, she said, If you judge people, you have no time to love them. We would do well to emulate such a calling.

I think we do indeed, do well at this here at ABC, and I want to commend us for that and say let's keep growing in our LQ. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians similarly when he wrote to them, May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else. . . I Thessalonians 3:12a (NIV). And John has been reminding us to love our brothers and sisters time after time in our Sunday morning studies of his first letter - just one example is, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 (NIV). These are good words for us to remember as we love one another and allow that love to spill out into a world that often gets the impression (often with good cause) that "church people" aren't very loving. Let's be bolstering our LQ in a love starved world.