Finding and Creating Belonging

Excited and apprehensive, I moved along the red brick walkway past Pitts Library to my first series of classes at the Candler School of Theology. A year removed from undergraduate studies, I was anxious in my return to the rhythm of campus. The thought of reading and writing about religion and its expression in the world caused my heart to flutter and I could not wait for this opportunity to explore and extend my faith.

After my first class, I made my way to the fellowship commons, a large gathering space where students enjoyed their lunch-from-home while striking up engaging conversation. The faces were all new and names unknown. Quiet and detached, I surveyed the space. One table was deep in conversation about the ethics of Christian writers of which I had never heard. Another group was debating different theories of soteriology and ecclesiology, terms outside my vocabulary at the time. Another group was deep in the details of church structure and organization. Was there anyone around who wanted to discuss the football game on TV last night?

I had a deep love for Christ. I attended youth group, retreats and mission trips. I had played in a youth handbell choir. I had even participated in a student version of Disciple Bible Study. I was confident in God’s call to serve and lead in the church. But the students sitting around those rectangular wooden tables were deep in religious conversation where I had nothing to contribute, and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to. I began asking myself, “Do I belong here?”

I count it as a blessing and privilege that I have no memory of anyone telling me, “We don’t want you; you don’t belong.” But I have experienced situations where I questioned if I was wanted, or where I wondered if my presence was noticed at all. Sometimes the priorities and practices of a certain group cause discomfort and communicate clearly that we are uninvited. Sometimes belonging is intentionally thwarted. Often welcome is withheld through negligence, apathy, and a lack of attention.

Yet Jesus’s ministry exemplifies the priority of belonging, as he made his way into crowds interacting with and forming relationship with those who were regularly excluded. He made space to hear stories, make conversation, and equip for leadership those whose situation or status left them on the outside. His departing instruction was for those who follow him to extend love as he had displayed, to follow in his way of inclusive welcome and extravagant grace. Faithfully, the earliest small groups of Christians created communities of belonging as they lived and shared their faith together.

As a pillar of our life at PUMC we commit to continuing the precedence of Jesus by committing to the cause of belonging. We will make way for people to feel at home with the Spirit of God moving in their life and in their relationship with other people. However you may engage with the life of this congregation, whether it be through worship, music ministry, missions, learning small groups, mowing the grass, or breading fish, I encourage you to ask how you do faith while helping others feel like they belong. May the wider community come to know that when they encounter PUMC, they will find welcome and joy, a place to be heard and known, and the space to be who they are and grow into the person God is calling them to be. Whoever they are, wherever they are from, and whatever kind of faith they have, they belong.