Church and tacos: two of my favorite things. But what do they have in common? A taco is a collection of ingredients held together for one purpose: TO GET IN MY BELLY! Good tacos are made up of more than one ingredient. When my wife makes tacos our table is busteling with little ramekins full of cheese, olives, hamburger, lettuce, peppers, sour cream, chicken, grilled onions and so on. It is a pain in the butt to clean up but delicious to eat! The church is also a collection of things held together for a common purpose. If you go to church then you are one of those things. Great churches are made up of a colorful collection of people with different backgrounds, jobs, ages, families, styles and so on. Each person has the opportunity to bring something new to the table.

Some churches try to hard to push for one ingredient. Sometimes I see the whole energy of a church being focused on finding more "groung beef." You hear cries like, we need to get younger or, where are all the kids at? It is important to be intentional about attracting people to your church. Dont fall into the trap of placing exclusive value on one type of person. You can make the other ingredients on the table feel unappreciated. What happens if you ignore a part of your congregation for to long? They quit participating in the life of your church. They may even break off and start forming their own exclusive community within your church. This is bound to happen at some level with different groups. What can we do to keep this sort of un-taco behavior in check?

Church leaders need to see the value that every demographic has to offer. Once you see the seniors, new believers, middle schoolers and seekers for what they are worth you can do something awesome: mix them up! Affirm each identity for what it is and let them know that they are better off mixing it up with the other groups. The ingredients will not want to do this at first? What does a senior and a first grader have in common? Nothing. But you will be surprised how well they go together. H