We all know what it’s like to feel like we don’t know what is happening around us.It can happen when we are surrounded by people who speak another language and who have a culture which we have not become accustomed to. I know when I travelled through Spain, I felt like an outsider (which I was) and awkward trying to engage with others. It didn’t help to feel that no one really cared about whether I was feeling welcome, accepted or comfortable.

I also remember feeling like an outsider (which I was) at a church event when I was a teenager. There were a certain number of things that people were doing at certain times like standing to sing songs that they all seemed to know, praying and saying things that I had no idea of what they meant. It was hard work. But nobody else seemed to notice. I felt a lack or connection and a distance. I felt this church had no relevance and no awareness of where I was- the people there seemed nice enough- but they were all in on a secret way of doing things at their special club that I just didn’t get. They may as well have been speaking another language.

That experience is not unique to me. It is one reason I don’t want to be leading a church that does not connect with people. We want to speak the language of people, but also show just how truly relevant to real everyday living trusting Jesus is. That’s what Rouse Hill Anglican Church is on about. So we are concerned to be authentic, relational understandable and open. We sing. We listen to talks. We pray- but we do everything with a keen desire to be appropriate to the culture in North western Sydney. Why? Because we want to speak the language. Come and tell us how we are doing!