How wide is your circle….. your circle of inclusion……your circle of influence? That’s what I would like for you to think about as you read this article.
How inclusive are you of people of other beliefs and values…. of other races, nationalities, and lifestyles? How inclusive should you be? The starting point is Paul’s great statement to the Galatians, where he says, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:25-28).
We all have our circles of inclusion, some more exclusive than others. Here’s one example. It comes from the Broadway musical, Shenandoah. A rugged mountaineer and his wife and their son and daughter- in-law sit down to eat in their small Appalachian home. The father returns thanks: “God bless me and my wife, John and his wife, us four, no more. Amen.” Now that’s a small circle.
At the other end of the spectrum, there’s the little children’s song that goes like so: “ I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together; All who follow Jesus, all around the world, yes, we are the church together.”
Does your circle all Protestant denominations? I’m guessing that Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Non-Denominational, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, storefront ministries, so-called Bible Fellowships, this list is all inclusive, are in your circle of inclusion. Should they be? I don’t know, it’s your circle. How wide is your circle? How wide should it be? Does your circle include all who profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?
Whether we mean to or not, we draw circles of who’s in and who’s out. If we all profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, why is there so much division in the church? Ideally, the Church of Jesus Christ includes Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants, rich and poor, English speaking and not; conservative and liberal, traditional and contemporary, congregational and connectional, pastoral and prophetic.
John Oxenham, pen name of author and novelist, William Arthur Dunkerley, said this, “In Christ there is no East or West, in Him no South or North, but one great fellowship of love around the whole wide earth.”
I will close with this, Paul tells us in Galatians 3: 26, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons (and daughters) of God through faith.” How about you? How big or small is your circle? We only need to remember one thing-we are all, I repeat all, one body, one church-period!! AMEN