True Community Is Messy
I once read a tweet by a guy named Matt Merker that said:
If you want a church with “community,” get ready to:
- Let people call you out on sin
- Drive old ladies to church
- Bring folks baby meals
- Teach Sunday school
- Pray for the body
- Have long conversations with awkward people
- Celebrate weddings & kids while waiting for your own
I think that’s a SHORT list of all the difficult things we can expect to encounter when living in a tight-knit, Christ-following community. It isn’t all about us, but rather a group of believers putting each other first and understanding the broad scope of ministry and kingdom building here on earth.
University has been dealing with some ‘messy’ situations lately. In fact, Pastor Ben used those exact words to describe a problem we are currently facing, but quickly followed it up by saying it’s a great problem to have! Upon first look, it can feel like there is something wrong with the things we are doing, but when you lean into the call of Christ for a community and church things get hard.
My encouragement to you is that you will look deeper into the difficult or ‘messy’ situations that arise in our church community, and see that these issues only arise when we try to be as accommodating as possible to all ages, races, and faiths (or lack thereof).
God bless you all!
Wes Taylor