Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,  praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47)

Today is Sunday. I understand that, while I do have a huge faith-based audience, many of my readers have a host of reasons they won’t be in church – any church – this morning.

Some don’t believe, some are turned off by church, some are wary of church, and some have been hurt or burned out by a variety of negative church experiences.

Believe me, I understand where you’re coming from. And I’m hugely disappointed that so many churches have contributed so much “bad religion” to the collective understanding of what “Christian” means in America. It’s a scandal of misrepresentation, misinformation, and misunderstanding that has alienated too many of God’s children, and surely hurts God deeply.

But I’d like to say a brief word of, “Don’t give up on us yet.” Two points:

ONE: If you’ve read this space more than a handful of times then you already know I think our church is awesome! I felt that way about the amazing, faithful disciples at FPCBrandon, and I feel that way about the enthusiastic, belief-filled Jesus-followers here at WFPC.

If you attend our church you’ll find yourself in the middle of a smorgasbord of faith, hope, doubt, belief, questions, assurance, joy, uncertainty, promise, weakness, strength, and more. In other words, we’re a work in progress, and we’re certain you’ll fit right in.

The Body of Christ is a smorgasbord of faith, hope, doubt, belief, questions, assurance, joy, uncertainty, promise, weakness, strength, and more. In other words, we’re a work in progress, and we’re certain you’ll fit right in.

TWO: Saturday Rebekah and I drove just north of Richmond to enjoy lunch with my two great friends, Ray and Greg, and their wives, Kim and Peg (Greg and Peg’s college age son, Justin, was there too, as well as Ray and Kim’s toddlers). It was the first time I’d been introduced to Kim and Peg, and it was the first time Rebekah had met any of them.

Everyone around the table is at a different place in terms of their experiences when it comes to church. But – and this is critically important – our gathering around that table was an authentic and vital manifestation of The Body of Christ.

This is the Body of Christ. Take a look at the photo. Just six of us; a smorgasbord of faith, hope, doubt, belief, questions, assurance, joy, uncertainty, promise, weakness, strength, and more. In other words, we’re a work in progress, and we’re certain you’ll fit right in.

The Body of Christ is a work in progress. Believe me, I’m certain you’ll fit right in – DEREK