Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community

The church is imperfect, messy, maddening, and at times mundane. But she is the body of Christ, the organism God has chosen to physically manifest the Son to the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. It may not sound exciting. It may seem too predictable and institutional and bourgeois. It’s certainly not going to be comfortable. But showing up at

love doesn’t always feel rewarding and it doesn’t always look like progress. But it does look like sacrifice and servanthood. Which is to say, it looks like Jesus (Mark 10:42–45; John 13:1–17).

a Christian college or church ceases to be relevant when it abandons its conviction-driven distinctions to fit the prevailing winds of politics and culture.

Dispense with the supernatural and you dispense with Christianity.

many people today have a hard time accepting the authority of individual church leaders, pastors, or elders.

sons and daughters of God can’t just throw in the towel and retreat to our just-like-me friend groups and homogenous cliques. We must lean into the awkward conglomeration of people who comprise the church.

“True self-denial (the denial of our false, fallen self) is not the road to self-destruction but the road to self-discovery.”14

Paul teaches again and again that Christians are “dead to sin” and risen to new life, no longer slave to sins but to righteousness (Romans 6). That doesn’t mean the battle with sin is gone.

Far from a symbol of shame, the cross is a symbol of victory for those who believe. We are victorious in Jesus (1 Cor. 15:57), more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37), led by Christ in triumphal procession (2 Cor. 2:14). The cross is victory over sin and deliverance from darkness (Col. 1:13); it destroys “the one who has the power of death” (Heb. 2:14); i