For three decades, a church has gathered beneath an interstate highway in Waco, Texas, creating an unlikely sanctuary where those society overlooks find genuine belonging. What can this beloved community teach the wider church about discipleship, worship, and inclusion?
In Finding Belonging Under the Bridge, practical theologian and research scientist Melody V. Escobar presents a groundbreaking year-long ethnographic study of Church Under the Bridge, a nondenominational, multicultural congregation whose members rated their sense of belonging an extraordinary 8.7 out of 10 in semi-structured interviews. Through first-person narratives and participant-captured photographs, thirty-three members--including individuals who are disabled, unhoused, living in poverty, or formerly incarcerated--reveal how they don't just find acceptance but become essential contributors to the church's mission and spiritual vitality.
