Outsiders, Not Insiders

"Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.” Luke 5:31-31 MSG

My Pastor, Stu Hodges, from Waters Edge Church (WEC) preached on these verses above during our Everybody sermon series this past month. As soon as he read them, I thought to myself...."THAT'S WEC!" I grew up in a United Methodist Church for the first 18 years of my life. That church taught me everything about the Bible, Jesus, and the church, and it is where I initially grew my Christian faith. I greatly respect that church and cherish the memories, teachings, and amazing Christian mentors I met there. However, once I started attending WEC four years ago, I saw a huge difference between the two churches.
Yes, there are some obvious differences...like at my old church you would wear your Sunday best, and at WEC you wear casual clothing or whatever you want. At my old church, we mostly sang from a hymnal with an organist, and at WEC, we have a live rock band worshipping their faces off as loud as possible. My old church read liturgy during service, and at WEC, we have a pre-show and play games. Now those are some big differences between the two churches, but the main difference I want to talk about here is how my old church was more focused on the insiders and how WEC is focused on the outsiders. What do I mean by that? Well, there are many traditional churches in our country today that have become so comfortable with tradition and norm and have everything in their church catered to the church members. That means they have committees, groups, events, potlucks, etc all for the people of the church, those who know and love God and attend church regularly already. That is an insider-focused mentality and church. Those things are not evil and bad in and of themselves, but if that is all your church does, and they never reach outside of those four church walls into the community to bring unbelievers into the church, then I believe you are missing the whole purpose of The Church and The Gospel. This is something that WEC is great at! They are so outsider focused and the whole mission of the church is to change the way people think about church and teach unbelievers about Christ. Every single aspect about WEC is done to make the unchurched person feel welcome. From the greeters in the parking lot, to the greeters at the door, to the donuts or cookies in the lobby, to the contemporary worship music style, to the service times, to the video multimedia interaction during the service, to the sermon which is so applicable to real life and teaching the Gospel. It took me maybe a month or two to fully understand the mission of this church when I first started attending, but once I finally did grasp it in its entirety, I was so on board, 110%. What greater mission in life is there than to see people far from God come closer into a loving relationship with Him and to fall at the feet of Jesus with their lives? I mean, seriously!?! Within a month of when I first started attending WEC, I started volunteering on the Production volunteer team and participating in a small group (which we call Community Groups at WEC). Those two things alone opened my eyes up even more to the expanse of people in our community who need to know Jesus and just how committed WEC is to doing everything in their power to meet that need. I am so appreciative to Pastor Stu, the WEC Staff, and the nearly 1,500 volunteers at the church that join in that mission to reach the lost for Christ. Jesus was about the outsiders, the lost, the sinners, the forgotten. So, His church should be too! Just like it says in Luke 5, WEC is all about inviting outsiders, not insiders, and they are inviting people to meet Jesus and have a changed life! I am so incredibly blessed to call WEC my home church! If you ever want to check it out with me, just message or text me. You can learn all about it at www.watersedgechurch.net.