This post is part of a three-part series drawn from Pastor Adam Anderson’s recent sermon wrapping up our Sermon Madness series. In that message, he reflected on the three words at the heart of who we are as a church: sincere, supportive, and inclusive.
Inclusion here at South Jax is not a slogan or a buzzy catchword. It is a way of life.
To be honest, calling yourself an inclusive church can sometimes feel like a lightning rod. For some, it suggests that you stand for everything and nothing. But here, inclusion has never been about emptiness. It has always been about belovedness.
I think about conversations I’ve had with members who don’t vote the same way I do. We may not see eye-to-eye politically, but we have found something far more beautiful than agreement: relationship, respect, and wonder. One member said to me recently, “I’ve given up hate.” That kind of belovedness matters more than who we agree with or what positions we take.
And once we meet each other in that place, we often discover we share far more in common than we thought. Even a conversation that could have become another culture war moment instead turned into laughter about Buc-ee’s and Cracker Barrel. That’s inclusiveness in action.
Jesus never told the disciples to only go where people already agreed with them. He told them to go, to carry peace, to stay where they were welcomed, to lead from peace. Inclusion in that sense is not permissiveness, but active bridge-building. It is space-making rooted in belovedness above all.
And that is who you are. Again and again, you have chosen belovedness over hate, relationship over division, bridges over barricades. You’ve created a community that transcends differences and becomes something far more holy: a true community of belovedness.
That is why “inclusive” is one of the first words anyone sees when they visit our website. Because it’s not just something we say. It’s who we are.