Inclusion!

We need some pretty radical change in the church if we are going to reach a world we SAY we care about. We have excluded a lot of people out of our lives, being more concerned about the danger they might be to us...then deciding whether or not maybe it is somebody Jesus would include...and perhaps we have it wrong. There is an issue of inclusion. God's nature is for us to live with the assumption that everyone is coming to the party. God isn't interested in who may or may not want to come to the party, but everybody gets an invitation. God gives everyone a chance. Historically in the church we have not wanted to waste our seed on people we don't think will respond so we judge, separate, and exclude. And then we put our seed in someone we think is a likely responder which means most of the world are never reached by the church because we pre-judge them as non responsive types and so we finish up having church just filled with our types which usually means most of the community are not being reached. So we are inclusive with those we feel safe with, which is a human nature thing. But we by default exclude the majority that are not like us. Who are some of the people that Jesus included that might be kind of surprising? Everyone Jesus included were those that were not included by the established church at the time. He seemed to specialize in people that were not accepted in mainstream. They were being excluded by the religious people of the day. If we get this religious mindset, we will literally exclude those that Jesus would include. Jesus, from day one, reached out to the prostitute. Often an act of inclusion is what you don't say. He didn't judge her. He didn't express an opinion. What he actually did at the end of the day was protected her from their exclusion. Jesus was willing to be excluded to include someone that would never be included. That is Jesus.