Learning to See Each Other As Gifts
by Craig Wong, Executive Director
As Christians, we are called to “love thy neighbor," which made our conversation with a rightfully angry gentleman from an adjoining complex, particularly humbling. “The noise and debris from your building renovation is a real problem, and no one’s told us when this is going to end!” he expressed in so many words. Without going into detail, we realized at that moment that we had failed (albeit, unintentionally) our neighbors. Especially humbling for me was the fact that I was just heading off to Chicago to give a talk at a conference on “Neighbors, Near and Far.” Ouch! The bruising reality was that it’s possible to have a bulging rolodex and a hospitality theology and yet fail to see the people right in front of us.
As Grace Fellowship Community Church, and thus our office, nears the final stages of building renovation, we are grateful for the ways that God is mercifully teaching us lessons in trust, flexibility, loosing control and, perhaps most important of all, learning to see one another...and those around us...as the gifts that they are. We’ve had to learn to lean on each other as fellow congregants, as well as upon our neighbors, exposing our weaknesses to them and needing their forgiveness. But glory be to God, we can trust that He will use all of this to further knit congregation and community together in ways that bear witness to the shalom He is about re-creating in His world. Pray that this may be so.
Just the beginning
Welcome to the GRIDD. Whether you want to learn more about the city, see how God is at work in and through His Church, or to simply catch up with what we’re up to and what we’re thinking about these days, we want the GRIDD to be of service.