When You Don't Fit at Church

Ever felt like you turned up to church at the wrong time, in the wrong place, with nothing to bring? This one's for you.

About this episode

Mike Harris joins Crowd Church to walk through one of the strangest, most tender moments in the Gospels — Jesus reaching out and touching a man with leprosy. It's a story about a guy who broke every rule about how to come to God and somehow got the warmest welcome of his life. Mike pulls in his own outsider stories — the football wall, the cycling club, a moment in a garden he's not proud of — and asks the question lots of people are quietly asking. Does Jesus actually want me here?

Timestamps

• 00:00 Welcome and Series Recap
• 03:34 Mike's Talk — Have You Felt Left Out
• 05:26 The Cruel Football Captain
• 07:16 Joining the Cycling Club
• 08:26 The Leper at the Wrong Time
• 10:56 I Am Willing — The Real Question
• 12:26 What Leviticus Actually Required
• 15:56 Wrong Time, Wrong Place, Nothing
• 16:56 The Infectious Holiness of Jesus
• 18:56 Gentle and Lowly — Dane Ortlund
• 21:26 You Are Hidden in Christ
• 22:33 Conversation Street — Lepers Around Us
• 32:26 The Distance Built Into Church
• 39:56 What Can We Do for the Left Out
• 45:56 He Gives Us What We Need
• 49:56 What's the Story + Alpha Plug
• 51:56 Mike's Final Word — Hidden in Christ

Key references

• Mark 1:40-45 (Mike teaches the parallel in Matthew 8:1-4)
• Leviticus 13-14 — the social rules around skin disease in the ancient world
• Matthew 11:29 — the only verse where Jesus describes his own heart
• Romans 8 — no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus
• Hebrews 4:16 (Ade) — approaching God's throne with confidence
• Dane Ortlund's book Gentle and Lowly — Mike refers to it as How Does God Change Us, which is a related companion book by the same author

Quotes from the talk"It's one challenge to believe in God's power. It's another challenge to believe he would use that power in your life." — Mike Harris"Jesus's gut reaction was to move toward the leper. That was his reaction, not his thought-through, considered one. It's just what his heart is." — Mike Harris"God's mercy and grace was the grit to get through. It isn't always deliverance — but very often it's in life's hardships where God's greatest grace works happen." — Ade BirkbyLinks

• crowd.church — Join us live Sundays at 7pm UK
• Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund — the book Mike quotes from
• New Alpha Course starting Tuesday 5th May (online) — register via crowd.church

Crowd Church — a community for those who might not see the point of church.