Mortgage brokers, emergency responders, secretaries, construction. Kids educated in public and private schools, home, and online. Accountants, garbage men, professional athletes and coaches, landscapers. Administrators, teachers, and other school staff. Old, young, and middle-aged, small families and large ones, various religious backgrounds and political opinions. Health coaches, engineers, realtors, lawyers. Retired, working, unemployed. Counselors, UPS drivers, professional musicians, nannies, pilots.
People who only speak English and those who are fluent in more than one language. American citizens, foreign nobility, and exchange students. Just married, divorced, married once, multiple marriages, widowed, and never married. Dentists, animal and plant farmers, bank tellers, hair dressers. Past and present battles with addiction, travelers and homebodies. Web designers, aestheticians, cake bakers, project managers, mammography techs. People who love to read, create art, and/or listen to music.
Marketing, advertising, and technology development. Every skin tone and hair texture, outgoing and shy, poor and wealthy. Electricians, HVAC professionals, human resources, stay-at-home parents, baristas and coffee shop owners. Store clerks, mechanics, police officers, librarians, doulas. Women, men, children. Multi-level marketing businesses, daycare workers, speech therapists, jet boat owners, paving crews. Parents with adopted, biological, foster, and/or step-children and childless couples. Military, manufacturing, wedding coordinators, car dealers.
Those who enjoy outdoor recreation and those who prefer to be indoors, people consumed by fashion and those who are oblivious to it. Insurance agents, plumbers, massage therapists, tackle stores, florists. Mental illness, neurotypical, special needs, disabled, healthy, chronic and/or terminal illness.Veterinarians, photographers, caterers, pharmacists, correctional officers and other jail employees. People who make and sell cookie dough, home decor, purses and totes, leather Bible covers, skin care products.
I could go on, but the point is that I love how our church family is made up of radically different people who are united in their love for Jesus and desire to be more like him, who regularly meet to sing praise songs, study their Bibles, and take communion together.
Would everyone be content at our church? No, which is why it's great that there are a variety of church sizes and styles. Does everyone in our church love every aspect of it? Of course not. No two people will have the same preferences and beliefs about everything. Is our group free of conflict? Nope. We're definitely a bunch of normal human beings, which means there are hurt feelings, misunderstandings, irritations, and sometimes the need for a little space. Do we, whether the corporate church or the individuals that comprise our church family, get everything right all the time? No, we don't. That's just not possible.
Those things, however, are far outweighed by the myriad of ways our church family supports each other. Sometimes it's practical support, like the church office paying someone's bills and making sure they have gas to get to work, groups of people rallying together to keep food on the table of a family whose finances are tight, or individuals providing money, services, or other resources to those in need, either directly or anonymously.
Sometimes it's the emotional support of the person who quietly passes you tissue paper while you're crying in church, the church staff member who meets with you for individual or marriage counseling, those who sit with you and listen when you just need to pour your heart out, those with gentle advice gained from their own experiences, the one who remembers a significant date or event and checks in on you.
Sometimes it's the spiritual support of a pastor who teaches verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and book by book so that we learn all the Bible teaches in the frequency that the Bible addresses each thing, the songs chosen by the worship leaders that help us keep our focus on Christ, the people who pray with and for us.
Are these things unique to the church we attend? Absolutely not. Do many of these things happen outside of church? Definitely. Lately, though, I've been struck by how our church family specifically, a group of people with so many differences, is still a cohesive unit overall. I love it and am thankful to be a part of it.
