My disclaimer is that this post has a similar theme to my last one.

This week we took our 2 year old to Castle Espie for a little morning fun.  This was also my first time there.

To quote “Get up close to Ireland’s largest collection of native and exotic water birds, bats and migrant birds whilst taking in sunning estuary views.”

There was something beautiful and amazing at seeing just how many birds actually inhabit what seems like a small part of the world.  I have been to many animal themed attractions – places where animals are somewhat confined to select parts of the park while people like me look at them.

The weird thing about my experience this week was noticing how none of the birds seem confined or locked in, in any way. They seemed free to come and go as they pleased.  There were no nets, no roofs and seemingly no boundaries. There was clearly something though about this “place” that just simply made birds (and lots of them) want to be there. The environment was right and the culture of that space made it somewhere they just wanted to be – because it offered them all the qualities they needed.

And this got me thinking about church, and the Kingdom.

Sometimes we can get so obsessed about “growing” our communities that “being” community takes a back seat.  There is something beautiful about the idea of simply creating the right culture that will seem incredibly attractive to a broken, hurting world. I am convinced that programs and events aren’t really what people are desiring.  Don’t get me wrong, we need events to create the initial contact point for people.  But people are longing for connection with people – real connection and real life.  And that is the most natural thing in the world – and we can’t ever force or program that.  When we do it seems forced and fake.

I’m challenged to just simply “be” the environment.  Not try to plan, program or come up with a strategy plan for people – just to be a human being doing real life and showing that real authentic love that flows from his kingdom.

This is back to this idea of “just be”.  We are responsible for creating the environments and culture around us.  We cultivate the Kingdom – and when we do that well, when we love like Jesus – we become the most attractive people on earth.

As we walked around this bird sanctuary, I joked with my husband, wondering if any of the birds were having meetings or convos about how to get more birds to know about this great place called Catle Espie. Did these birds have a plan?
And the answer was no, of course they didn’t. They where just happy doing life and no doubt naturally trying to find friends to tell them about this epic place they’d found.

We get the incredible privilege of carrying  Jesus.  We are hosts of his presence and operate in a kingdom the world can only see through us.

Let’s be people who live out of who we are and whose we are – it’s natural, healthy, and our communities will grow and flourish because of it.