Are you searching to Belong?

I am going to suggest that the best place for you to turn for help as you embark on this search to belong is a local church. In our postmodern age, the church is the one institution that has community built into its mission as a non-negotiable. The mission of the church is to develop people into followers of Jesus Christ, and to do this it takes a community. The author of Hebrews lays out the priority of community, writing: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” The development of meaningful relationships where every member carries a significant sense of belonging is central to what it means to be the church. The church is not a building, it is a God-ordained gathering of people saved by the grace of God. The purpose and calling of the church is given by God, with the guarantee that even “the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Yet in the busyness of the American lifestyle, people who profess faith in Jesus Christ and do not attend church make up the largest religious category in the United States today. If the author of Hebrews were writing his words of challenge to us today, he would write, “Let us not give up meeting together, as most are in the habit of doing.”

from Connecting Church 2.0 (Release Date Feb. 15, 2013)