February 26th, 2025
by Jacob Hess
by Jacob Hess
The coach for the Eagles (GO Birds!), Nick Sirianni, in a fiery speech recently, talked about the importance of playing as a team. He said you can do a lot of great things on your own, but you can only do special “stuff” (he used more colorful language) as a team. And he wants to do special “stuff”. We want to do special stuff at Christ Church too. Recently we’ve been talking about how a love for Jesus makes room at the table. Jesus’ love is so life changing that it should propel us to open up our homes and our lives to those facing both physical and spiritual needs all around us. But to truly make room at the table, we must not simply invite people to our individual tables. We must invite them into a community of love and invitation. We can do a lot of great work for God on our own, but only together as the church can we do special stuff for God!
A friend I made in college illustrates this truth. I really enjoyed my college studies and made a lot of great friends in the process, some of them lifelong. During my Junior year, a student transferred to my school. My school was small, only about 500 students on campus, so it was easy to notice new faces. This new student, let’s call him John, always ate alone in the cafeteria. I’m sure it was difficult to make new friends transferring to a new school in the middle of his studies, but John also had a disability that made it difficult to connect with others. He had a seizure when he was a baby that made it difficult for him to walk and caused his arms and hands to twist in discordant shapes. The seizure also made it difficult for him to talk. It took longer than normal for him to process information and respond to questions. He was a smart guy, his body just didn’t react as fast as he would like it to.
All this made it hard for John to make friends, which was part of the reason why he transferred to a new school. He hoped things would be different. Sadly, even though he was at a small Christian school, not much had changed. I eventually did the right thing and befriended John. I made room for him at the table. We ate lunch together, walked across campus together, and I busted into his room to invite him to late night adventures. I remember John’s mother visiting campus once. He introduced me to her, and I can still picture the expression of bewilderment and relief on her face when she saw that John could call me a friend. John had been so neglected by the busy chaotic world in which we live that his mother was surprised to find someone had slowed down long enough to get to know her wonderful son.
I felt pretty good about myself, making room for John at the table. The problem? I didn’t invite John into a wider community. Sure, it was a nice thing I did, slowing down long enough to see someone who had been ignored and neglected, but what I didn’t do was bring John into the community of friends that I had already made. How much of a difference would that have made in John’s life? In the lives of my other friends who never got the chance to get to know John and the gift he is to the world?
We miss out on doing special stuff for God when we just think about our Christian walk as individuals, or individual families. Jesus never commanded individuals to go “and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19), He commanded a community of disciples to go and do it together. Our life together as the church should be brimming with so much love that it is a witness to the world around us of the love that changes everything! And it should be a community centered around a common purpose of growing together as more and more encounter the good news of Jesus. As William Temple once said, “The Church exists primarily for the sake of those who are still outside it.”
Are you neglecting the power of Christian community in your witness? We can do a lot of great stuff for Jesus on our own, but we can only do special stuff when we work together to invite people to the table. We each have our own unique gifts to offer, and the love we share with each other is itself a powerful witness to a lonely world where far too often people are ignored or neglected. Let’s be a church that does special stuff for God as we join together in the mission of making room at the table.
A friend I made in college illustrates this truth. I really enjoyed my college studies and made a lot of great friends in the process, some of them lifelong. During my Junior year, a student transferred to my school. My school was small, only about 500 students on campus, so it was easy to notice new faces. This new student, let’s call him John, always ate alone in the cafeteria. I’m sure it was difficult to make new friends transferring to a new school in the middle of his studies, but John also had a disability that made it difficult to connect with others. He had a seizure when he was a baby that made it difficult for him to walk and caused his arms and hands to twist in discordant shapes. The seizure also made it difficult for him to talk. It took longer than normal for him to process information and respond to questions. He was a smart guy, his body just didn’t react as fast as he would like it to.
All this made it hard for John to make friends, which was part of the reason why he transferred to a new school. He hoped things would be different. Sadly, even though he was at a small Christian school, not much had changed. I eventually did the right thing and befriended John. I made room for him at the table. We ate lunch together, walked across campus together, and I busted into his room to invite him to late night adventures. I remember John’s mother visiting campus once. He introduced me to her, and I can still picture the expression of bewilderment and relief on her face when she saw that John could call me a friend. John had been so neglected by the busy chaotic world in which we live that his mother was surprised to find someone had slowed down long enough to get to know her wonderful son.
I felt pretty good about myself, making room for John at the table. The problem? I didn’t invite John into a wider community. Sure, it was a nice thing I did, slowing down long enough to see someone who had been ignored and neglected, but what I didn’t do was bring John into the community of friends that I had already made. How much of a difference would that have made in John’s life? In the lives of my other friends who never got the chance to get to know John and the gift he is to the world?
We miss out on doing special stuff for God when we just think about our Christian walk as individuals, or individual families. Jesus never commanded individuals to go “and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19), He commanded a community of disciples to go and do it together. Our life together as the church should be brimming with so much love that it is a witness to the world around us of the love that changes everything! And it should be a community centered around a common purpose of growing together as more and more encounter the good news of Jesus. As William Temple once said, “The Church exists primarily for the sake of those who are still outside it.”
Are you neglecting the power of Christian community in your witness? We can do a lot of great stuff for Jesus on our own, but we can only do special stuff when we work together to invite people to the table. We each have our own unique gifts to offer, and the love we share with each other is itself a powerful witness to a lonely world where far too often people are ignored or neglected. Let’s be a church that does special stuff for God as we join together in the mission of making room at the table.
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