Dear Church Wanderer,Sample

Dear church leaver,

The church. For some, it’s a safe haven. For many, a place full of taboos. And for some, it’s a place with mixed feelings. I’m writing this to that last group, because I’ve felt those same tensions myself, too.

Where did the church begin? The first official (Roman Catholic) institutions didn’t emerge until about 300 years after Jesus, when an emperor, mostly for political reasons, decided to stop persecuting Christians. Before that, followers of Jesus gathered quietly in small groups. The many denominations we know today began around the 1500s, with modern evangelical movements only appearing in the 1800s.

With so many movements, you’ll likely never feel perfectly at home in any one of them. Yet, at its core, the church should simply be a community of people trying to follow Jesus as best they can.

The church is more than an institution. It’s you and me, believers in all our diversity and imperfection. And yes, we all carry those imperfections. But ultimately, the church isn’t about us. It’s about one Person: Jesus. He sees, knows, and forgives you. He is the reason the church exists.