Safety As Sacred Work: Why Safety Matters in the Church
This blog is a return to some of the same challenges with an emphasis on the importance of creating safe community. the following is shortened version of a chapter in a book I am working on putting together to challenge churches and individuals to engage and live in the Messy Middle.
What does this look like when we build community together?
Safe church spaces do not emerge accidentally. They are formed—slowly, intentionally, and with a biblical mandate—by communities that take Jesus at His word when He says that love will be the defining mark of His followers (John 13:34–35). For LGBTQ+ people, and for many others shaped by racial injustice, political marginalization, or spiritual trauma, “church” has often been experienced as a place where lived experiences are scrutinized, minimized, or silenced. In spaces that should have been marked by safety, harm has occurred.
If we are serious about discipleship, we must be equally serious about the environments in which discipleship is invited to grow. This work is not about lowering theological standards. It is about deepening our commitment to the way Jesus forms people—through presence, belonging, and embodied grace.
Jesus Builds Community Before He Resolves Theology
The Gospels reveal a consistent pattern in the ministry of Jesus: He creates belonging before He addresses behavior, and relationship before resolution. He does not begin with tests of worthiness or clarity of belief. He begins with shared life and table fellowship.
Jesus eats with those labeled sinners (Luke 5:29–32). He welcomes children and warns against becoming obstacles to them (Mark 10:13–16). He engages the Samaritan woman—crossing gender, ethnic, and moral boundaries—by first honoring her story before addressing her life choices (John 4:1–26). These encounters are not exceptions to the rule; they reveal the heart of Jesus’ way of forming community.
The early church reflects this same posture. Acts describes a community shaped by shared life, radical hospitality, and mutual care (Acts 2:42–47). Paul reminds the Romans that the kingdom of God is not about enforcing uniformity, but about cultivating righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Belonging is not a reward given at the end of transformation—it is the soil in which transformation takes root.
For LGBTQ+ people, many of whom have been asked to resolve their identity before being allowed to belong, this biblical pattern matters deeply. Safe community does not mean an unexamined life or the absence of conviction. It means no one is required to bleed in public to earn dignity, and no one is treated as a problem to be solved rather than a person to be loved.
Foundational Biblical Commitments for Safe Community
The call to build safe, faithful community is not a cultural concession; it is grounded in Scripture. At least three core biblical commitments guide this work.
Every person bears God’s image.
From the opening pages of Scripture, humanity is created with inherent dignity by a God who delights in His creation (Genesis 1:27, 1:31). This declaration of goodness is not reserved for the best-behaved or most religiously polished. Dignity was never attached to moral performance. Even after humanity’s profound failure, the image of God was not revoked.
For our LGBTQ+ friends, this truth compels us to recognize inherent dignity above any identity or life choice. It presses us to make space at our tables, in our worship, and within our shared life. Excluding people from community or diminishing their worth stands outside the parameters of Scripture. To speak faithfully, we must echo God’s declaration: their existence is not only good—it is very good.
Welcome is a Christian command, not a cultural trend.
Romans 15:7 instructs us, “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” This command does not hinge on agreement, conformity, or resolved theology. We are welcomed by Christ while still sinners, and we are called to extend that same welcome to others.
This requires honesty about sin and brokenness—ours included. Same-sex attraction or transgender identity is not, in itself, a moral failure, but a lived reality to be met with humility, curiosity, and grace. Christian psychologist Dr. Mark Yarhouse notes that disorder is not limited to extreme cases but is part of the shared condition of humanity living in a fallen world. This perspective levels the ground beneath our feet. It prevents us from placing others beneath us and reminds us that welcome is not something we earn, but something we receive and extend.
Love is the Church’s primary witness.
Jesus is unmistakably clear: love is how the world will recognize His followers (John 13:35). Our witness is not measured first by doctrinal precision, political alignment, or moral certainty, but by how faithfully we embody Christlike love. Safe community flows from this love.
When the Church becomes hostile or unsafe for LGBTQ+ people—or for any marginalized group—our witness is compromised. Whenever we build walls instead of tables, we drift from the way of Jesus.
From Good Intentions to Faithful Community
Building safe church spaces moves us beyond individual posture into shared practice. The question becomes not only, How do I show up? but What kind of space are we building together?
Safe communities are not perfect communities. They are repentant ones. They name harm honestly, honor marginalized voices, and take faith seriously enough to live it vulnerably. They are spaces where LGBTQ+ people are not projects, politics, or punchlines, but neighbors beloved by God and, often, siblings in Christ.
This work is slow. The tensions are real. The discomfort is unavoidable. But the call of Jesus remains clear and steady:
Build tables.
Break bread.
Bear fruit.
And trust God with the rest.
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