Ed Welch – The Church as a Place of Healing (#CCEF2023 Main Session 6)

Ed Welch did a session asking us to consider ways we can be growing as a church in light of what we have been learning this weekend. He asked us to consider how our church can be a place of healing? (How has our church already been a place of healing in the past?)

Ed gave the example of a batter on the Phillies Baseball team. There was a batter who could not hit fastballs from left-handed pitchers but he was committed to growing. One summer, he spent time and effort practicing to do better. What is one area we can commit to growing in from this conference?

“How can your church be a place of healing?… One of the pleasures of living in God’s house is that there is no such thing as being stagnant. How do you want to grow?”

– Ed Welch

For Ed, he considered that he wants to learn from other people in his church. He wants to be alert to the wise people around him that he can learn from. One such person at his church was an expert at asking good questions. This man asks certain questions: What was a high point from your week? What was something really good about your week? His questions are never the same. How is your heart this morning? What was really hard this week? You can tell that this man considers his conversation with you before he even has it. He never turns an important conversation back to himself. He knows when other people are speaking about matters close to their hearts, and he is all in.

How can we be increasingly trustworthy to our church family like this man?

How are you going to be a contributor to your church as a place of healing? One way is to show a hospitality that invites others into our family. Ed shared that he wants to become more skillful in drawing out more words, good meaningful important words, from other people and become alert to the things he does to stop those good conversations. We’re trying to get the knack of life in God’s house. Our God seems to delight in speaking important words to us and he invites us to do the same, to speak important words to him. May there be good listening and sharing, like at an Italian restaurant!

Perhaps one way our churches can grow is with pastors and leaders leading the way with repentance, confessing sin and asking for prayer. Or where leaders listen to women and practice gentle humble leadership. If we are listening to the Lord, the humility that comes out of that is going to result in us listening well to others.

“If we are not listening to other people, it means we are not practiced in listening to the Lord.” – Ed Welch

Ed challenged us to be part of the 4% of a church body that pushes the congregation to do better. Four percent is often what it takes to start a tipping point for change, whether it be in a country or a church. Change can start with a small percentage of us. May the Lord use us to love the hurting world.

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