Have you ever honestly asked yourself — "Who is the Church actually for?"

It's easy to assume the answer. But what if your definition of church has been quietly closing the door on the very people Jesus came for?

In this message, we go back to the earliest church — the church of Jerusalem in Acts 6 — where two groups of believers, the Grecian Jews and the Hebraic Jews, were clashing over culture, language, and who deserved to be cared for. A feeding program for widows had become a tool of exclusion. And if the apostles hadn't stepped in, a God-sized dream for that generation would have died in a room full of people who all believed in the same Jesus.

David D. Ireland, Ph.D. | Lead Pastor | Christ Church

This message wrestles with two questions every believer and every church must face:

• What is the Church? — The word church comes from the Greek ekklesia — the called out ones. Called out of darkness, out of individualism, and into communitas. Not just community, but a Latin concept that means we are willing to suffer discomfort and inconvenience for the greater good of the whole. When people look at the Church, they should see Jesus.
• Who is the Church for? — The Church is for saints and for sinners en route to the cross. Jesus was called a friend of tax collectors and sinners — and He never once defended himself against that accusation. The question isn't how polished someone has to be to walk through the door. The question is whether we are unconsciously closing that door through our attitudes, our appetites, and our baggage.

We also look inward — at the cultural clashes, personal biases, and unexamined baggage we all carry into the room. Baggage rooted in education, ethnicity, background, and expectation. Baggage that can make broken people feel like they will never belong — without us even realizing we're sending that message.

The Church God is building is not for one kind of person. It's for all shapes, sizes, and stripes — people who have it together and people who don't yet. The word on the street should be: I'm welcome there, even though I don't have it all together.

Key Scriptures: Acts 6:1–7 | Matthew 11:18–19 | John 6:37