As of the past few months, my husband and I have been living in my home state of North Carolina, but we moved to a town that’s new to us. With such a location comes both joy and frustration. The joys include living closer to family, having mini adventures while exploring our metroplex, and making this new-to-us house a home. Among the frustrations are finding new doctors, getting a North Carolina driver’s license, and—of course—unpacking.
Yet one aspect of moving that carries the tension of both joy and frustration is establishing community. That includes getting to know the neighbors and making friends, but I’m mostly referring to engaging with the local church and relearning how to do community there. Finding an ecclesial home is so critical to life for followers of Christ. Every body of believers has its own way of relating internally—among itself—as well as engaging with the community outside of the church.
In this May/June issue, CT writers and editors offer ways you, our readers, can engage with people both visible and hidden in plain sight. In the pages that follow, Ericka Andersen brings a feature on the state of women and alcoholism in the church. There are probably women in your own community who have drinking struggles but don’t know how to ask for help and likely feel shame at the prospect of doing so. And we hope this cover story from Jordan Monson and Mark Fairchild gives you a new angle from which to see the apostle Paul and read his letters—whether individually or in community.
We also hope you’re encouraged by these stories and others in the following pages—such as one woman’s account of navigating church conflict and a report that helps us think about how to engage Christians with ADHD in our own faith communities.
God’s plan for the world (A; there is no B) is to be accomplished through the church of Jesus Christ. We pray our work here through these stories can be used by him to continue building it.
Whether you’ve been in the same physical location or church community for decades or God has you in a new place (literally or figuratively), we hope our work invigorates you to go deeper—in the Scriptures and in your own spheres of community.
Joy Allmond is executive editor at CT.
