The following was shared by Dawn Reed in a Facebook post. It is a powerful reflection on the church as the bride of Christ, and our need to love her deeply. Dawn was a involved in the campus ministry I led. She and her husband Stacy are dear friends. Dawn serves now as the BCM Campus Minister at Lyon College, and Stacy is the pastor at First Baptist Church of Batesville, Arkansas.

God’s bride (the church aka the body of believers) is God’s design. It is His plan for every believer to be connected to each other. You have a purpose. This is not about US. I think back to my friends Jeff Noble’s book Super Center Savior. We are not to be consumers of church we are to serve the church. 

We had the opportunity to go to Fordyce First Baptist Church (where Hannah and Hudson spent their formative years) this weekend. Stacy worked a DiscipleNow, and Hudson was a participant. The church has helped mold and shape my children, my husband and myself. Where would I be without the family of God? It has restored me, encouraged me, discipled me. God’s BRIDE! You can’t love God and not love His bride! Imagine that I tell you I love you but don’t love your spouse. Would you want to be my friend? Would we grow in our walk? No! Emphatically no!