Soma Austin Community Church

The gospel reconciles. Both between God and man, and between man and man.

What todays market forces, politics and pride drive apart in our culture, the gospel brings together. Scripture tells us that the gospel brought together both Jew and Gentile; two groups the couldn’t have been much more different, but they were united under Christ through the gospel. Through the gospel our identity is found in Christ, and we enter into a larger, historical community of faith that comes together to worship God, love one another, love our neighbors and to seek the peace of those in our spheres of influence.

In this community of faith, people still belong to different political parties, have different skin tones, they still drive different cars, wear different things and they have very different interests. But we are not to be defined by these differences and segmented into different spaces in the church, are we? The richness of the gospel and of the church is that we are different but that we are drawn together by the gospel. Our testimony of reconciliation through Jesus is made more credible by our reconciliation with one another. Additionally, we miss so much cultural/socioeconomic richness in the church when we segment ourselves from one another. The gospel is bigger than our differences.

I am not saying we all have to have the same music, and the same styles. But as a church planter, I want to be aware of how we contribute to the segmentation of people groups and how we present the gospel as reconciliation. I want to be based in reality also. The truth is that the church exist within this segmented society. But I really hope and pray that the segmentation can stop (or be redeemed) when people interact with the church. Lord, help us to be examples and agents of your reconciliation. Help us to be agents who bring peace.

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