1. Your skeptical questions and viewpoints ultimately enrich Christian community.

Contrary to popular belief, you will not catch fire if you walk into a church. In fact, a healthy Christian community will not judge you in the least, but rather welcome and embrace you. They’ll also embrace your skeptical questions and diverging views. Sound s weird? Perhaps. Yet, it’s because healthy Christian communities believe hard questions don’t threaten their faith, but make it deeper and more thoughtful. Christians (and I'd say people in general) were never meant to live in some sort intellectually sealed-off bubble. A non-religious person participating in a Christian community makes it more like what Jesus intended Christian community to be.

2. To make sense of the world, you need to be informed about religion.

Christianity has had an enormous impact on Western culture. If you don’t know the stories of the Bible, everything from Shakespeare to Renaissance art stays a little fuzzy and confusing. Culture isn't your thing? Well, do it for the politics then. Whether we like it or not, religious people put Donald Trump in the White House. By better understanding firsthand at least some of the religious motivations of a significant part of the American electorate, you'll be better equipped to effectively communicate to them. Plus, not all Christians are Trump supporters, and some Christians who have spent years studying the meaning of life may even have some genuinely helpful insights on human nature and making the world a better place.

3. You’ll deepen your empathy for other people.

This isn’t to say you’re not already sympathetic, and this isn’t a claim that religious people are more moral than non-religious people. They’re often not, and that’s not the point of Christianity anyway. However, the narrative nature of a Bible that talks about people who lived thousands of years ago, forces anyone engaging these ancient texts to take determined steps in understanding the struggles of others. Combine that with a mandate by Jesus to “love your neighbor as yourself,” and even a non-religious person will find their empathy deepening from weekly discussion that helps us imagine ourselves in the someone else’s shoes.

4. You will likely discover something about Christian community that is good, beautiful and true.

So is this the part where I say you’ll get converted? Not quite. For starters, I don’t think its within my power to convert anybody. If I really believe what I say I believe about God, I can’t have timetables or secret agendas when it comes to experiences of faith. That said, my Christian community, Journey, has non-religious people participate with us every year. Some simply visit a few times and remain entirely non-religious. Others have stayed much longer and did become followers of Jesus. Either way, I think even for the committed atheists who have hung out with us long enough have seen glimpses of what philosophers have called “the transcendentals;” the experience of something that is good, beautiful and true. Somehow, when a group of inclusive people humbly try to orientate themselves around the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, something almost-miraculous seems to bubble up.

It may or may not be God, but it makes life better, and I think it’s worth exploring.

Journey: A Worshiping Community For College Students, currently gathers at the College of Charleston on Wednesdays nights at 7 pm in Stern Center Room 205.