These are words that most people look forward to. There is something so wonderful about coming back home after time away. Even if it’s only after a day away at work rather than weeks away, coming home is so comforting – ‘Home, sweet home!’.

I wonder if you’ve ever thought of church as ‘home’? Of course it’s not our ‘home’ in one huge and vital sense: the real home for every believer is not on earth, but with Christ in Heaven! We are “aliens and strangers in this world“ (1 Pet 2:11), “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20), we have been delivered “into the kingdom of the son He loves” (Col 1:12-13). It is vital to always remember that “we are not of this world” (John 17:16), and that we will never feel fully ‘at home’ here.

But, the amazing parallel truth is that, as believers, we have been adopted into His family (Eph 1:5) ; because God’s Spirit dwells in us, we are joined together in Him (Eph 2:21, 4:16)! And so, for us, church should be a ‘home from home’! We’re with family, we’re together with those we love (1 Jn 4:7-8,19). Coming into church shouldn’t feel like pulling on a starched shirt, but being wrapped up in a warm blanket … it should be a place of love, security, belonging, growth, loving discipline and care, a place where we are joined together in Jesus’ name (Col 3:15-17).

Coming into church shouldn’t feel like pulling on a starched shirt, but being wrapped up in a warm blanket … it should be a place of love, security, belonging, growth, loving discipline and care, a place where we are joined together in Jesus’ name.

The interesting thing is that, in the early church in Acts 2-4 God was “adding to their number daily those who were being saved“ (Acts 2:47). When you go from 120 to 3000, and from 3000 to 5000 there would normally be huge changes. What was a fairly personal gathering of friends should suddenly become a corporate affair with strangers. But that’s not what we see! Acts 2:46 gives an intimate picture … they kept on meeting every day in homes and in the Temple court. Even by Acts 4:32 there is that amazing picture of unity: “All the believers were one in heart and mind“ – they continued to be family. When persecution came this couldn’t last … they were scattered. But what do we see? We see the homes they set up become places where others were welcomed in as they came to faith or were simply being scattered. We see Peter and Paul welcomed into homes as they journeyed, we see churches going out to greet Paul when he couldn’t go to them. And, most touching of all, we see believers in Rome walking 32 miles to the Three Taverns to meet Paul as he journeyed to Rome (Acts 28:19). We read “At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged“ … there was a sense of ‘being at home’ with brothers in Christ.

This worked-out reality of church as ‘home from home’ is something that should be seen in all churches. We are expressly commanded as individuals to welcome strangers (e.g. Rom 12:13, Heb 13:1), so how much more should we welcome brothers and sisters in Christ? And welcome is more than a handshake at the door … it’s love that finds out more, invites to your house, shares meals. And, of course, welcome doesn’t stop after the first meeting, but continues to draw new-comers into the church, bring them into Small Groups, help them identify and use their gifts within the church, and ultimately helps one another grow in the Lord.

Our welcome is our greeting at the door, is our speaking to the person we’re sitting next to before and after church, is our ‘meet and greet’ within church, is our coffee together after church. But its more – it’s enabling all God’s people to become part of the family in CBC and so reflecting Jesus’ adoption of us into His family as God’s sons and daughters. Welcome into the family of God meeting in CBC isn’t merely a ‘nice thing to do’; it’s living out and shining out the reality of our family relationship in Jesus. Every believer who comes into CBC should feel like they have ‘come home’.

Our welcome enables all God’s people to become part of the family in Cambray and so reflects Jesus’ adoption of us into His family.

I know that we already do well in making people feel welcome on arrival. But in the months ahead we’re going to seek to do more as a church, encouraging hospitality, helping new-comers become a part of the fellowship, and enabling people to identify and use their gifts to serve in the church. This isn’t a task for leadership, nor those ‘on the door’. In fact, it shouldn’t even be seen as a task … welcome should be that natural reflection of Christ in us … all of us. So, lets together make CBC a home to all who join with us!