Engage With Love

ENGAGE OUR NEIGHBORS WITH GENTLENESS AND HUMILITY OF HEART.

“Be humble and gentle; with patience, bearing with one another in love.” —Ephesians 4:2

One of the challenges with living in the Suburbs is Isolation. We don’t know where we belong, or who we belong with. And so people instead have found belonging along the lines of ideological tribes. If you believe the same things as us, you belong.

How might we affirm this?

The church cares about belief and conviction, and we care about what is true. So when people align over belief and truth we can affirm that instinct. 

How might we need to challenge that?

However, the church values diversity. Diversity of thought, diversity of background. That's something that should stand as a witness to the world. But difference can cause conflict. That's why the bible speaks so much on unity. Unity is not the same as uniformity. So Christians should be very good at finding unity in diversity. 

If we believe the gospel makes us good before God, we don’t have to be right to prove we are good. Therefore if someone suggests we might be wrong, we aren’t crushed by that thought. And belief in God should humble us to realize, we probably are wrong about a lot of things! So we learn how to engage because we love others (rather than disengage and not care) but we learn to do it with love and humility.