I have recently been in conversation in regard to the desire
many of us have to be part of a church.
What makes us desire such an experience?
I believe the answer is just as fascinating as the conversation itself.
On one hand, we could say any of the following are drawing
us through the church doors:
- We want to raise our children in the faith that we claim.
- We want to have an opportunity to worship and grow in our own faith journeys.
- We seek spiritual guidance.
- We want to do good.
- We feel obligated to be there...
We all have our reasons...many of which aren’t represented
by this list. But I would propose that
there is one answer that is more basic and that speaks to our collective experiences.
There is something that we are seeking...something that will
give us the get-up-and-go on that Sunday morning (or Wednesday evening, or
Saturday evening, or whenever worship is scheduled in the community we
visit...), something that propels us from our homes and fuels us to walk
through the doors. That propellant is
the desire to be part of a community.
It’s that simple. We
desire to be part of something larger than ourselves...and a faith community
provides that opportunity.
We walk in the doors seeking acceptance...
It sounds a bit selfish, really. But the reality (I believe) is that at our
core there is a strong desire within each of us to be connected with
others. It doesn’t matter if we identify
as introverts or extroverts. It doesn’t
matter if we typically monopolize a conversation or if we are happy to simply
listen. It doesn’t matter if we have a
lot of friends or just a few. We are
drawn to be connected with others at the very core.
So what does that look like in the local faith
community? What do we (or would we, if
we haven’t gone through the doors yet) experience when we take that step?
Hopefully (and I know this is not always the case,
unfortunately) we are welcomed, genuinely...welcomed for who we are regardless
of how we dress, how our hair looks, if we have tattoos, piercings, unmanageable
children, if we show up late, or if we are there an hour early because we
forget to change our clocks at the time change.
Hopefully someone is there to greet us with a smile, ask our name and
invite us to join in with the others.
And from there...?
The possibilities are endless.
Relationships can spring up. Work
can be accomplished. We find ourselves
with a growing personal interest in others and we see that others have the same
interest in us.
The worship service, the Bible study, the fellowship group,
the potluck...they are all secondary to the connections that we desire as part
of the community.
But the first step is walking through the door.
If we have already taken that step, then our work is on the
side of acceptance and welcome. It’s a
two-way street. We give and we get. And from that, with authentic interest in one
another...amazing things will happen.
So when was the last time you found yourself having
increased personal interest in someone else?
Isn’t it about time for it to happen again?
