I read this blog post earlier today, When You Don't Fit In At Church. (Thanks for the link, Crystal!) The author goes to a rather conservative church where she should not fit in because of the differences. Her sampling of the ways that she is different makes it clear that she really shouldn't fit in:
'My van is covered in HRC [Human Rights Campaign] and Obama and Strong Bad bumper stickers'
'I care about things like LGBT equality'
'I’m pretty iffy about hell.'And yet, every Sunday she gets out of bed, leaves her still sleeping husband and drives an hour to this very-different-from-her church. Why?
'I don’t fit in, but I am loved.'If God blesses us with converts, many of the people who will come will not be like us. They will be very different. They 'will not fit in'. We will need to love them. People don't become Christians because their lives are all in order. In fact, no one who is a Christian has his life all in order. We are Christians because we are loved by the Father - who loves us even though we are very different from Him. And it is that love that we need to pass on to others.