Karen wrote a really moving, revealing, and insightful post last week. If you missed it, give it a read. But I want to focus on just one paragraph, in which she identified one major problem in churches:
It was around this time that I started taking Christianity more seriously. And I did feel like I belonged among Christians for, after all, Christians form a spiritual family with God as our Father. But there was still difference: I could feel it around the edges. Many of the Christians I associated with had Christian parents and had been raised as Christians—had been brought up in a culture of Sunday school attendance, church-going, beach missioning, house parties, conferences, Christian in-jokes, and so on. I felt the difference most acutely when I did something which was a little abnormal in their worlds—odd, perhaps erratic behaviour which they then politely ignored—and when I tripped on something I didn’t understand but which everyone else all seemed to understand. I belonged and yet I never felt at home.
This is one of the worst problems a church can have! We ought to be as welcoming as Christ, with whom even the worst sinners felt comfortable (and, conversely, the self-righteous felt uncomfortable).
Our church struggles with this, I think. Not only in the way Karen identified, but even just generally accepting people into the cliques. A small, homogeneous area, lots of people with similar interests, huge proportion go or have gone to the same school, tight youth group. Its great that we have formed a close community. I just wish I knew how to turn that community outward towards the community. I think one of the most important first step is being aware of it. Look out for this problem!
Have you noticed this, at your church or at another? How do you think it can be addressed? What has your church done about it?