Sense of Belonging

Have you ever had the feeling that you didn't belong somewhere? I'm not talking about being some place you shouldn't be, like a bar or a crack house. I am talking about being with a group of people and being made to feel like you are an alien. I can't count the times that I have had that feeling. Sometimes, it feels as if most of my youth was spent in a quest for unachievable belonging. I realize that is an exaggeration, but feelings are often difficult to shake.

It is one thing to be gathered with complete strangers and yearn for some sense of belonging, but to be gathered among family and to feel you don't belong is another. It is painful to look in the face of someone you know and to see a lack of acknowledgment. Or to be standing within arms length of a "loved" one, and they won't move to acknowledge you.

Now, let's take this sense of belonging into the church. Someone from our community comes in to our worship gathering. How do we respond to their visit? Do we greet them with welcoming arms? Do we acknowledge their presence and worth? Do we let them know that we have a place for them among us? Or do we coldly look the other way? Do we stand at arms length and fail to make a move to welcome them?

The church should be a place where people feel like they belong. The non-believer should be welcome in our services, in our homes, and in our lives. They shouldn't be the driving influence in how we do worship or how we live, because that place belongs to Jesus. Our love for Jesus should shape our worship and lifestyle. But to be like Jesus, we need to befriend the non-Christian.

However, it is even more important that believers feel like they belong. Christ and his apostles continually remind us that the church is a family. They are a family with one Father; they are a family with a Brother who has redeemed them. They are a family made up of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. They are socially, culturally, and economically diverse, but every believer belongs.

Are there people in our churches that are slipping through the cracks? Have they sat in our pews, but felt like an alien or an outsider? Maybe its time we make a move to include them, to acknowledge them, to love them. Maybe we need to embrace them and tell them they belong before its too late and they drive off never to return.