When did you first feel
like you belonged to a church?
Who made you feel welcome?
Sadly, there are those who
have not always experienced the open arms that they might have hoped for.
We see this hesitancy in
the early church as well. In Acts 15 we have the early leaders of the
church having an emergency council. The elders gathered to discuss the
newest problem, what to do with these Gentiles who were fast becoming members
of the church as it spread outside of Jerusalem. Many of the leaders had
difficulty learning to view these newcomers as full members because of their
ethnic and previous religious differences. Unfortunately today we still struggle
with these same issues.
But following Jesus
requires challenging many of the ways that the church has been guilty of
excluding others in the past. That’s
why the third rhythm in following Jesus is to include, to embody radical
inclusivity.
The challenge of being
radically inclusive is understand that to be the church is to value unity over
uniformity. To be inclusive like Jesus, means to learn to not limit God’s
family only to those we might be comfortable sitting next to at dinner.
Who was the last person to
make you feel included in an uncomfortable setting?
Who do you think needs to be included in your local church community?
What can you do to make them more welcome?
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