In what was probably the most straight up talk of the night, Amanda threw some punches at the idea that people only really seem to start to belong in our communities once they behave in a certain way. The idea that conformity in behaviour is paramount to being a valid part of a community. But Amanda made the case that this doesn’t appear to be anywhere near the character of Jesus who entered into relationship with those on the fringes and let those people makes changes if and when they felt led to.
Amanda acknowledged that this makes for messy church and a
heightened degree of vulnerability as we let go of being able to remain
comfortable in stereotypes. We leave the timing up to God as we build a
community that seeks to not alienate anyone. So in many ways this requires a
courageous church to really put this into practice, but the opportunity is
always there for us to spearhead true belonging and provide a compelling
picture of Heaven on Earth.
From the feedback it seemed that people are very conscious
that at a church like ours it is really easy to not look outside of our
immediate friendship groups and actively develop community. Most groups
acknowledged a need to get out of social comfort zones and exercise humility in
friendship groups, looking to give more. On a practical level, some feedback
reminded to simply follow up on invites to small groups so people feel
included.
There was also a strong concern in taking the belonging
principle too far, with questions being asked like what about disruptive
behaviour? What about those we ‘waste time on’ to the detriment of others? What
about those who want to be there but don’t want to belong? How does it look
structurally? People stressed the need for boundaries in partnership with this
thinking.
