I slipped in at the back of the church. In front of me was a family with an eight-year-old girl sitting nervously next to her dad. She looked even more agitated when a man that she didn’t know sat next to her in one of the few seats left.
Her dad saw her nervousness, put his arm around her and said: ‘Don’t worry. Let me tell you a story about this man. Ten years ago, I was new to this country. I walked into this church for the first time not knowing anyone. This guy walked across from the other side of the church and made me feel like family.’
These two men clearly hadn’t seen each other in years. Yet the impact of one on the other had lasted a lifetime. I would love the impact of the welcome among our church community to match what that man, at the time a cultural outsider, had experienced. So how can we get better at welcoming others, as we have been welcomed by Christ (Rom. 15.7)? Here are five things that are helping me:
How to apply the gospel across cultures? Talk about shame
I still remember the weight of that brown envelope in my hands. My entire future seemed contained within those folded …