A Place to Call Home

One of the four components of our local church's vision is to create a place people can call home. So what does that look like anyway? To my mind, a place I can call home has the following characteristics:

• home is a place where, when I am away from it, I want to return
• home is a place where I am known — well known
• home is a place where I fit, as the person I am, not a place where I have to fit in
• home is a place where I am missed when I am away
• home is a place where I can be meaningfully engaged, where there are things to do that make a difference
• home is a place where I can open myself to others, and invite them in
• home is a place where I regain energy and passion for the work of life

The vision of the local church as a place people can call home is truly a hugely ambitious vision. I wonder sometimes if we think enough about just how huge, and simply pass the words by as something that sounds nice.

This vision is also somewhat different from other business type visions in that there really is no way to put a number on it — it is something that happens within the people who are part of this "home". External observations may give clues, but certainly wouldn't be in any way reliable. But in reality, I think the most important things that a church ought to be attempting are of this sort.

I suppose if we were to take this vision component seriously, we'd have to have some more soul-searching conversations with each other as part of the process of evaluating whether we are actually engaging our reality in a way that moves toward or away from this vision. That in itself could be a step forward.