Read: 1 Corinthians 9
You may find yourself wondering why LCBC seems a little different than society’s perception of a “traditional” church. There’s nothing wrong with tradition - we have some traditions around LCBC that we love! But one of our church’s values revolves around being relevant and welcoming to people who may not have a lot of experience with church, or who could feel uncomfortable in a “traditional” church building or service.
If we know that our goal is to introduce people to Jesus, then we know that we have to create environments where everyone feels comfortable being introduced to him. In this chapter, Paul is explaining all the parts of his life that he gave up to introduce people to Jesus, and in Verse 19 he explains why: it all comes back to the opportunity to tell people about Jesus and what he did for them!
As a church, we want to follow Paul’s example - that’s why you’ll hear modern language and examples in our teachings, see people in casual clothes rather than fancy ones, and hear popular music styles (sometimes even secular songs!) in our worship. We make all of these choices so that anyone and everyone feels comfortable and welcome, safe and accepted. We don’t only want to be a church full of people who know and love Jesus - we want to be a place where anyone searching or looking for more answers to questions about faith can feel at home, too.