99 CHURCH 99 CHURCH

Like Adam and Eve, you could be tailor-made for the place of ultimate communion, and yet forgo connection due to fear. We experience profound loneliness with the very people we belong to because we hide, afraid of being seen as we are. Vulnerability is coming out of hiding and exposing our wounds so that we can be accepted as we are—not as we want to be. It's confessing our brokenness, our weakness, and our sins, not only so that God can heal us, but also to experience true belonging with His people.

Our world is full of division and hostility. There always seems to be walls of separation between groups, whether it’s because of race, gender, sexuality, class, politics, or faith. But the Gospel calls us to have an open posture of love towards everyone, even those who aren't easy for us to get along with. This week, we talk about the second practice of belonging: Chemistry. Is it okay to prioritize those relationships that come easy and naturally to us? And how we can build chemistry with those who are vastly different from us?

We live in a world where we’re constantly distracted, busy, and pulled in a million different directions every single day. It makes it hard to discern what to prioritize. Belonging is impossible to cultivate if we aren't willing to make it a priority. We only have so much time, which beckons us to ask ourselves: How should we spend our time? And more importantly, who should we spend our time with? This week, we explore the first of five practices that cultivate belonging in a community: Priority.

In recent years, America declared loneliness a public health epidemic. We all know what it's like to feel unseen, unknown, and unloved. But this isn't the way God created us to live. We were made to belong. We all want to find belonging, but most of us don't know. This week, we begin a journey of exploring key practices that can help us cultivate belonging in a lonely world.

Jesus didn't come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people come alive. Jesus didn't die on the cross for us to merely exist. He died on the cross so that we can have life to the full. Easter reminds us that Jesus is alive and He is making all things new.