Nicely said. Agree with everything. I definitely feel being part of the Church that ultimately involves all believers, but I have a problem belong to local church since my experience is they are eager to put up fences.
Discussion
Pastor always told me; start changing the church by changing you.
Your totally right, It’s easy for us to believe that people put up fences at church and let that be the reason that we don’t go.
If we choose rather to place higher value the reasons why WE attend church, the main reason being “to sacrifice my preference”; then you could be the first instance of someone else who’s hesitant seeing the church as a non-fence rather than an eager fence setter.
We can start by asking, “what can I do for the church” rather than “what can the church do for me”
Yes, this is about serving the church and each other. I’ve managed to be active in some of the church’s projects without officially being a member of that specific church, and it works well for me.