Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Romans 15:7 (ESV)

Within a Christian community, there are two kinds of belonging: first, belonging to God, and second, belonging to one another. Without the first, the second is impossible. Until we recognise and value our belonging to God, we cannot foster a sense of belonging to make others feel welcome and included.

Belonging is by grace, not work.

Despite the fact that none of us deserves God's love, He adopts us into His family and brings us together with other sons and daughters to form a new community. It is through this sense of belonging to God and one another that we can genuinely nurture a culture of open acceptance towards all people.

God’s welcoming of us is the basis and source of our welcome to others.

A welcome culture extends beyond a simple “hello”. It involves helping and coming alongside others as they grow a sense of inclusion and belonging within the larger church community. Even if it's obvious that we can't be everyone's friend, we can still be friendly to everyone.

There will, however, always be something or someone in the church that makes you feel as though you don't belong or fit in. The question is whether we will purposefully strive to be as welcoming as Christ or whether we will allow ourselves to be cowed into accepting things as they are. How can we hope to share the gospel with others if they are aware of our reluctance—or our inability—to live out the gospel with one another? In this sense, we don’t have a theological problem, but rather we have an obedience problem.

I once visited a church and chatted with a couple for a while. Towards the end of our conversation, I asked them how long they had been attending the church and they surprised me by saying it was their first time visiting it. Even though it was evident we were new, no one from the church tried to get to know us or make us feel welcome.

Since we completely belong to Christ, we should then learn to share this belonging with one another. Each of us has received the grace of welcome and hospitality through Christ, enabling us to contribute to the overall quality of a healthy community. Thus, we should take the initiative to learn how to reach out to others rather than waiting for them to come to us.