Which comes first: Believing or Belonging?

At Community Life Church, we think that many of us as churches have in the past got it wrong: we always thought you had to get your beliefs all straightened out and then you could belong to a church.  First you had to get your beliefs all lined up with what the elders and the denomination told you was the right stuff to believe, then you had to be baptized and then you could be a member of the church.

Now, at Community Life Church, we want things to be different.  We want people to feel that they can belong first, regardless of where they are in belief.  And if you belong, you can join with us on our journey toward Jesus and the Kingdom he has inaugurated, “on earth as it is in heaven”.  And on that journey you will believe things and then you will doubt these things and you will believe other things and then you will doubt them too, and so it goes as we journey in our conversations with one another and guided along by God’s Spirit.

Think about it, when Jesus invited people along, he didn’t test them for what they believed, he simple said “come follow me”, or put another way, “come go with me”.

Jesus invited little children to come close to him; he didn’t get them to make sure their beliefs were all lined up first; he just wanted them to feel that they could belong.

 

And Jesus got into trouble with the religious people of his day for hanging out with the wrong sort of people, people who were, well, sinners, you know, bad people that the good religious people would have nothing to do with.  Jesus didn't tell them to clean up their act and then he would meet with them; he simply invited them to "come go with me".

In making this change at Community Life Church, we have dropped the importance of church membership; if you want to be a member, that is okay, you are more than welcome to become a member.  But you don't have to be a member to participate actively in all our church does or to participate in our business meetings; and you can work in various roles around the church without being a member.  We want you to feel that you can belong and journey with us.  And on that journey our conversations will help us all sort out our various beliefs.

We have a little video we like to show frequently and the video ends with what we want people to feel: “It’s okay to be not okay . . . really”.