Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community

Faithful Christians should embrace rather than be embarrassed by their abnormal status and strange practices; not for the sake of being weird, but for the sake of the world.

if there’s one thing the God of the Bible demonstrates about love, it is that it is not primarily a feeling. It’s a commitment.

As uncomfortable as it may be in our understandably anti-institutional world, submission to authority outside the self is a necessary and beautiful part of the Christian life.

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

Everyone is born with bents toward certain sins, including sexual sins. Whether this is nature or nurture, it matters not.

Instead of driving twenty miles away to attend a church that “fits my needs,” what if we committed to the nearest nonheretical, Bible-believing church where we could grow and serve—and where Jesus is the hero—however uncomfortable it may be?4

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

The Western world doesn’t need a more muddled, confused, “I love Jesus but not the church” Christianity made up of a million different opinions and to-each-his-own permutations. Rather, it needs a true, unified, and eloquent witness to the distinctly alternative vision for life that Jesus offers. And this will only come with a renewed commitment to

Holiness is difference. It is strange. But not for the sake of strangeness. For the sake of Yahweh.

The perfect church does not exist, but committing to a church in spite of its flaws is essential—and worth it. Churchless Christianity is an oxymoron.