Creating a Community of Acceptance and Inclusion Within a Local Church

Creating a community of acceptance, inclusion and care within a local church

It is important to raise people’s consciousness regarding the Church as a house of prayer for all of God’s children.  The local church is a spiritual hospital where sick, broken, wounded and hurting people, whether physical, mental or emotional, come for healing, restoration and wholeness.  God’s agape, the ultimate sacrificial and redemptive love, which He reveals and embodies in our Lord Jesus Christ, is the primary cure to any human ailment.  Agape is the most supreme form of love – sacrificial, unfailing, unending, illimitable, gracious, just, respectful, empowering and redemptive. As eternally grateful recipients, disciples in a local church freely extend this highest form of love to anyone who comes.  They welcome visitors, attendees and inquirers into the family of God where we share God’s love as a means of encouraging and empowering everyone to become the very best child of God of which he or she is capable.

“Let us love you until you learn to love yourself.”  Daily, people hear that prevalent saying in the rooms of recovery throughout the world.  Actually, the idea and practice originate sin the local church.  The Lord Jesus Christ tells his disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)  Fervently, I posit self-acceptance is the beginning of self-love.  Until a person unconditionally accepts himself or herself as a child of God created in the image of Almighty God, it is very difficult for him or her to love anyone even himself or herself.  Moreover, replacing secular, humanistic ideas (the depictions of Hollywood movies and advertising wizardry of Madison Avenue) about love with the love of God in Christ Jesus is the lasting cure to human brokenness.  Establishing acceptance, inclusion and care within a local congregation starts with clarifying a primary responsibility of disciples to share genuinely the Lord’s love as a practical means of fulfilling The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40) and The Great Commandment (Matthew 28:16-20).

Through preaching and teaching, I challenge our congregation to live this loves through action rather than thoughts and feelings.  Additionally, new members outreach, church auxiliaries and small groups are ways of including all persons.  It may be necessary to formulate certain ministries around particular groups, e.g. teens, young adults, single parents, grandparents who are rearing their grandchildren, persons with disabilities, etc.  Chances are people will find acceptance amongst similarly situated peers.

Quarterly social and recreational functions (games nights, new members tea or luncheon) to which all members are invited are generally effective.  As a supplement to weekly worship and corporate Christian education, fellowship activities afford church family members to hear each other’s “back stories” and better understand each other.  “You really do not know someone until you have walked a mile in his shoes.”  Sunday morning worship does not afford most people a chance to really invest time and energy in building and strengthening friendships.   Social and recreational settings remove vestiges of formality and allow people to relax and simply accept other people as they are.

Finally, we remember to forgive as we have been forgiven.  A sanctimonious and judgment spirit within a local church automatically repels new believers.  Sometimes, seasoned disciples forget the journey of discipleship is a marathon and not a sprint.  As they have traveled more miles than neophyte Christians, they are impatient as new believers begin the process of transformation.  Issues such a language, dress, musical tastes, worship styles and church governance potentially create disagreements which contribute perceptions of cliques and insularity.  As a consequence, some people may feel the “old guard” does not accept them.  In Ephesians 4:32, the apostle Paul exhorts the church “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  Practicing kindness is a primary step to demonstrating acceptance and inclusion in a local church.