“You can’t sit with us!” Most teenagers or twenty-somethings would recognise this line from the 2004 comedy, Mean Girls. The movie is an over-dramatised description of high school social cliques and the damaging effects they can have on teenagers. This moment in the movie happens when one of the popular girls breaks a cardinal fashion rule and turns up to the group’s lunch time hang out in track pants. This moment is meant to make us laugh - it’s rare in real life for anyone to be that blunt, but it’s also there to remind us of how ridiculous it looks when we exclude people because we don’t like their track pants.
Sometimes, the world looks far too similar to the Mean Girls cafeteria. People only interacting with those who share the same beliefs or ethnicity or sexual orientation. This might be ok for those who are on the inside, it might be ok for the world to be unwelcoming and exclusive. But it’s not ok for the church. The church is called to welcome everyone, always. Why? Because Christ first welcomed us. There should be no, “You can’t sit with us!” moments in the life of the church because we are fully aware that each one of us is made in the image of God. Christians have a call and responsibility to welcome all people, especially those who are strangers and outsiders. Welcoming is more than just a warm feeling; it takes courage and open-mindedness to walk alongside people who are different than us, but often when we do we realise we are not so different after all. When we become more welcoming people, we not only help the people around us to feel accepted and valuable, but we grow in character and our lives become richer.

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