In our group last night we talked about Shane's observation that churches can easily end up avoiding any talk about the hard stuff from the message of Jesus...little things like the cross and Jesus' saying that we need to "give up everything" to follow him can make us uncomfortable! In an effort to be welcoming and user friendly - we can lose all the power of Jesus' message for our lives and for the world by not really looking straight at what this message invites us to do and be about.

Anne LaMott's statement that God loves us just the way we are and too much to let us stay that way...is often used around Jacob's Well. God loves us where we are....but too much to let us to let us stay that way!

Seems like we, as Jacob's Well, can be about BOTH: accepting/loving each other wherever we are AND about holding up the challenge(and the POSSIBILITY) of really taking Jesus seriously...

How have you seen it happening? How has this been true for you? How could we be more about this?