I found this place in December 2016, the same week I was accepted to the World Race. I wasn’t sure I wanted to “get involved” in a church I would just have to leave at the end of the year. I hate goodbyes. And when I found this church, it was big enough that I figured I could come and go and no one would even notice. God had other plans(per ush).
Me, being me, and wanting to know more after my first initial visit, I attended your Step One class. That’s when I began to fall in love with you. While the class was informative and helpful to know what your beliefs and goals were, that’s not what made me dive head first into this community. It was the people I met before and after the class, the conversations with people who just really wanted to know me and how I happened to be here. People who heard me say, “I worked with 3 and 4 years olds at my old church” and legitimately made a phone call and had me serving in 2|42 KIDS that very weekend. I didn’t say I wanted to serve. In fact, I was trying to avoid it. But they were so excited to get me started and plugged in here that I didn’t even mind.
Then what I like to think of as the snowball effect started…through volunteering each weekend, I began meeting people in the church, found a small group, met more people, began friendships, started volunteering more, working not just with the little kids, but also students, where I met MORE people(you see what’s happening here??). I fell more and more in love with the COMMUNITY of it all. I felt so at home, so quickly.
You shocked me with things said from the stage on Sunday mornings, how REAL and raw it was. That it’s okay to show your broken pieces, it’s okay to not always be okay. You showed me what a real passion and love for Jesus can look like and that it doesn’t look the same for everyone. You gave me a place to worship God freely, and a place I could bring others into. You gave me the opportunity to be in a small group that was unlike anything I had ever experienced–what I still believe has given me a small glimpse into what the disciples had with each other and Jesus. You proved to me the importance of being surrounded by others, being in community, family, and never going it alone. God never created us to go it alone.
And most importantly, you made it so very clear, that your main goal is to reach OTHERS. To LOVE OTHERS. Not just those who attend. Not just “church people”. Not even to “win them over”, but to LOVE THEM. TO LOVE THEM. TO LOVE THEM. To love them as Jesus does. To give, to help, to bless, to cry, to laugh, to reach out of our comfort zones and to reach into the community and all those around us everyday.
It’s so not about the place, the building, the music, or the pastor’s message on Sunday. It’s about the PEOPLE. It’s about COMMUNITY. It’s about LOVING each other fully where we are at and encouraging and helping each other not to stay there, but to grow. To go out and BE THE CHURCH, where you live, work, and play.
Thank you 2|42 Community Church in Ann Arbor. Thank you for being the best place, home, and constant in my life as I prepared for this crazy adventure called the World Race. Thank you for preparing me in some way for the close community I will be living in over the next year, for the hands on experience of working in ministry, for the guidance, love, and support. Thank you for only ever reaffirming who God says I am. I seriously love you. I may be saying goodbye in a few weeks, but I will still be going out to be the church, just to 11 different countries and people groups! I will miss my church home more than I can say and no matter where I end up, this place is going to have a special place in my heart.
Please keep me and my squad in your prayers.
Blessings Always, Becca Clark
PS I have this crazy feeling that I’ll be back 😉
2|42 Comes from Acts 2:42-47 in the Bible.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved.”
