I am grateful to be in a church that values the Word. I am encouraged that, even when we disagree with one another (as we inevitably do sometimes), the question always boils back to this: what does the Word say?

As we are in New Year mode, I thought it might be nice to start off my year by thinking positively. I am a negative soul by nature, which despite popular opinion, does have its benefits. But let’s not pretend it doesn’t also have considerable downsides. So, I thought, why not be positive at the start of the year and think about some of the things that I really love about my church (by which I mean, the one I belong to rather than it belonging to me—you know it belongs to Jesus!)

Multicultural

One thing I love about our church is its multicultural makeup. We have the privilege of being reminded visibly every week that Jesus came for all nations. Israel’s Messiah came not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles too. Whilst every church that has any Gentile believers in it should be reminded of this each week (and that is most of us), I accept it is that little bit more tangible and obvious when your church is not monocultural and full of people who look, sound and act the same. It is such a privilege to belong to a church with Brits, Americans, Nigerians, Cameroonians, Latvians, Indians, Iranians, Iraqis and often others. We cannot escape the truth: Jesus came for all nations. And I love that.

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