Lead Pastor
October 2018
As the Lead Pastor of Santa Clara First Baptist Church, my goal is to "Wow!" the visitors and guests when they come to our church. We can do this by taking the church to the next level: From being just a "friendly" church to actually making each visitor and guest a "friend," and from being a "welcoming" church to creating an intentional space that makes us a "belonging" church. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
Jesus laid down His life so that you can become His friend and belong to God. Making friends takes effort, and creating a space where people feel they belong takes intention.
FROM FRIENDLINESS TO FRIENDS
I have asked many visitors and guests what they thought about our church. One of the most common responses was "People are very friendly and welcoming." "Great!," I thought. But then another thought dawned on me: "If we are to make the God-intended impact in the lives of people, we need to shift from friendliness to becoming friends." We cannot stop at just being friendly. People are looking for friends. If we are to add a "Wow!" factor to our church, we need to become a church that builds friendships.
In a transient community, transition shifts relationship. In a diverse community, diversity challenges homogeneity and the practice of exclusion. The spiritual awareness and intentional effort to make friends will bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots, as well as eliminate divisions based on race or ethnicity.
Here in the Silicon Valley, diversity is a reality. You can choose polarization or unity. In a diverse community, unity is a choice you have to make. An insular group views diversity as an intrusion. Diversity and unity are not opposites: Yes, they are different, just as the members of your body are different.
"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." (1 Corinthians 12:12)
God's creation is unique and different. He diversified the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we can edify one another. Diversity is a reality and unity is a choice. I like this phrase from Dallas Willard: "Grace is opposed to earning but not to effort." We are people of grace but we need to put an effort into reaching and building friends of Jesus: "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." (John 15:14)
Friendship builds unity. Make friends.
FROM WELCOMING TO BELONGING
Welcoming and belonging are two different things. Let us not confuse welcoming with belonging. Welcoming on any given Sunday may be greeting people with a smile and handshake, introducing visitors and guests to existing members or new members, serving them coffee, or showing them how to get around the church facilities. The extent of the encounter at times may last less than a minute. Will the visitor or guest feel accepted as a member or part of the community because of such a brief, though welcoming encounter?
Belonging means acceptance. The case I am making here is about creating an intentional space of "Belonging without exclusion." You can create a sense of belonging by excluding others. You can be part of an insular group and have a sense of belonging. Diversity in neither insular nor exclusive: Diversity is inclusive.
"Diversity is a reality and unity is a choice."
People need a sense of belonging: Of being accepted as a part of the community, as a member of the family. When we accept people and validate them it creates a sense of belonging. When we acknowledge people's experiences and understand their culture, that creates a space for belonging. Validation affirms acceptance. You may not agree with a person's ideas, but you can still validate the person. Acceptance is not agreement, just as enlightenment and intelligence are not the same. You may be an intelligent person, yet be polarizing.
We are all offspring of God: "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling." (Acts 17:26)
Be empathetically aware of others, and create space to share stories and life experiences. Validate the values of others, understand how others are different from you, and accept them as friends.
My goal: Shift from "A friendly church to making friends, and from welcoming to belonging." Again, "Diversity is a reality and unity is a choice."