[Cal]

I have long figured that if we focus on building up the believers, the building up of the Church will take care of itself.

The LRC thought it had hit on a great revelation seeing that God wanted to build the Church and figuring that's what we should focus on, too. But the Bible doesn't make that emphasis. The Bible, and the Lord Jesus, always focus on people as people--not on people as members of a group.

The problem with focusing on "building the church" is that it so easily morphs into focusing on things other than people. The LRC, for all their talk of practicality, focus on the Church as an abstract ideal above and beyond the people who comprise it. "The Church" thus becomes an abstraction which is idealized and served while ignoring its members.

But in God's eyes the Church is just the people, and the people are the Church. It's always about people. This is not to say that the needs of any one person can dictate to the rest, but just that God is not into abstractions. "The Church" is not a thing above and beyond the people, any more than a person's "family" is something above and beyond the family members.

Jesus never told us to focus on building "the Church." He and the apostles told us to care for "each other." There is a big difference and if you miss it you are in danger. The LRC thinks of focusing on "The Church" as a breakthrough virtue, but actually it's a pretext to treating people as disposable items.