Jesus and Inclusion

At my training courses, participants come from many different backgrounds. Once, a participant who worked at a Christian school in a deprived area (Inner city area) asked me: "Storybek, what stories are there about Jesus and inclusion?" As a reminder: inclusion means the equal participation of all people in social life - regardless of individual circumstances. To be honest, I discovered new things about Jesus' teaching. Inspired by this participant, the following set of stories was created:

The woman at the well John 4:5-19:25-30:42

Mary and Martha Luke 10:38-42 Focus: Mary as a woman is naturally part of the meeting.

Jesus and the children Luke 18:15-17

Jesus and the tax collector Luke 19:1-10

Jesus heals a blind beggar Mark 10:46-52

Antioch Acts 11:19-30+12:24-13:4a Focus: The descendants of Abraham and Greeks/Gentiles were welcome in the church.

Peter and Cornelius Acts 10 Focus: God welcomes everyone, as long as they are God-fearing and obedient to him.

Calling of the tax collector Levi Matthew 9:9-13

There are certainly many more stories that could be used. I recently heard a quote from a pastor on the radio about his congregation: "There is no place where inclusion is practiced more than in a Christian congregation. We have all ages, we have people from almost all walks of life, men and women, people with disabilities and people from different ethnic backgrounds. We are perhaps more inclusive than those who talk about it." Unfortunately, I didn't remember this pastor's name. I doubt whether this pastor is always right. The challenge remains to learn again and again what Peter also had to learn visting Cornelius: God welcomes everyone, as long as they are God-fearing and obedient to him.

In future blog posts, I will also present a story set from time to time. You can find all the material with formulated stories in my handbook "Stories and Oral Bibles" under https://www.fivefingerfood.org/en_us/download/. As my handbook continues to grow, I can only give the current page, page 250, but this will change. Otherwise, check the table of contents under "Jesus and inclusion". https://www.freebibleimages.org, a free super resource for Bible photos or drawings.