Root And Branch Church

There is this thing called the Great Commission, the last five sentences that close out the Gospel of Matthew. It says things like “Go out and make disciples of all nations,” for which it has become a rallying cry for all sorts of efforts to evangelize and convert people. That makes a certain sort of sense, but divine command mixed with human fallibility is formula for disaster, perhaps THE formula for disaster. The kinds of so-called Christian efforts taking place in Alabama and elsewhere underscore just how deep fallibility runs, as well as how fraught the idea of evangelizing can be when mixed with bad theologies, politics, and a prejudiced view about what it means to actually show love. Before we consider if there is a better way to do this, it might be necessary to ask what “this” actually is. In other words, what does it mean for us, our community in particular, to share something with the world?