An Accepting Family

This past weekend I took my youngest to Chicago to spend some time at the UChicago recruiting seminar. It was a good few hours on campus, and a wonderful weekend with my youngest.

However, I was truly amazed by UChicago. My son has spent 3 years receiving information from this school, so he wasn't as impressed as I was; but he did confirm this is one of his top choices for college.

What impressed me on a weekend where I knew the college would have its best foot forward? What did I take home from my 3-1/2 hours on their campus?

A sense of belonging.

While you would expect a college to pull out all the stops, to ensure the students giving tours and being available were their "best", to make sure everyone was impressed; I was surprised by how similar, yet completely unscripted, everyone's story was.

I heard several students say their favorite thing about campus was ... and all were similar, yet clearly individualized. It demonstrated to me the school had a message, the school was proclaiming that message, and the message was being internalized!

The clincher was during the tour. One of the tour stops was outside the dorm of our tour guide her first year on campus. She talked about what students (and parents) would experience their first day of college, should they come to UChicago.

All students and parents are assembled in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel for the first session on day one. After the session, everyone walks through campus to the quad near the main library, the main cafeteria, and some of the dorms.

At this point, the parents are "peeled off" while students continue walking towards their waiting "house." Each dorm at UChicago is subdivided into a "house" and these houses become part of the student's identity, especially in the early days of college.

Each "house" has representatives there with drums, tambourines, flags, crazy outfits, etc. waiting to welcome their new house mates. Our tour guide described it as moving from one family (your family of origin) to your new family (your college peers).

I thought this was awesome! Not only does UChicago have a message, not only is that message heard and accepted, it is lived out! They are family. They are a support system for their family. They accept you, just the way you are!

It pains me to say this, but UChicago does this much better than the church. If any organization in the world should be accepting (don't we all have much that has been forgiven?), it should be God's church.

And while God is accepting, even pursuing us even when we are not interested in Him, the church has failed miserably.

What would the church look like if everyone, no matter their past, were welcomed in every church, every Sunday? How much impact would we have on our communities if we truly were able to live into "come as you are" every week. What if God's church truly was as accepting as Jesus?

How awesome would it be that after considering faith, the moment someone came out of the baptistery, they were greeted not only with applause, but with someone stepping up to be their "mentor" ... someone willing to come along side for this transitional season in life to help them understand better what this whole Christian walk is about.

The early church understood this type of community. We read in Acts they ate together, they met together regularly, they shared resources with each other to meet the needs of one another. Of course, to them it was a matter of survival. They had placed everything on the line to follow Christ. Many would not have survived without community.

Maybe that is our problem. Being a Christian in America today doesn't really cost anybody anything. Despite that fact, only when we come along side each other and encourage each other will we be able to successfully navigate our Christian walk. Together we will be able to stand firm.