This morning in church, I introduce myself to the family in front of me. The wife uses crutches from an injury.
"What neighborhood do you live in?" I ask. Most folks who go to this church live in nearby neighborhoods. It's a satellite church from our main church building. We meet in an elementary school, and now we've grown so big we need two morning services.
"We live almost an hour away," she says.
"An hour away? You drive that long to come to this church?"
"We do. We come to this church because we were so tired of being judged other places because of our clothes or our issues. We wanted to learn about God without feeling judged the minute we walked through the doors." She pinches her thumb and forefinger together and says, "Those churches make you feel this small."
I'm nodding my head and looking around. I wonder why the recovering addicts, the newly divorced, the abused and the depressed find such a home here. I suppose it's because we have one thing in common: we are all desperate for God.
The pastor mentions the wife with the crutches and how she must hobble to get to the communion table. He says that's the picture of us all--hobbling--in desperate need of God.
To hobble means "to walk in an awkward way." We're terribly and beautifully awkward here in church this morning.
Maybe that's why we've grown so much as a community.
You're welcome here. We're all just hobbling along here, desperate.
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Don't you wish every church made folks feel welcome?
I have a couple of thoughts on the topic. Conversely, I wish people would make the Church feel more welcome. Church - the noun - the building or establishment, takes such a beating because of the behaviors of people not the organization itself . People from many circumstances, come into these 'buildings' most likely led by the compassionate spirit of God and are abused by the immature, self-righteous, (have to protect God) people. Wounded, insulted, dismayed, feeling better off in the world; these poor, unfamiliar people, blame the building or Church as it is called. This in turn, gives the body or Church people a bad name. I have much to say about this
ReplyDeletebut I believe that if the Church was welcomed by people as a place to worship God and to learn about not pointing the finger and forgiving
one another, leaving the behaviors of the world outside the doors,
people would feel welcomed by the Church when they enter it.
The irony of the matter is that there are people in the world who are not judgmental and are both giving and forgiving, who walk into a Church and are chased out by people who are not. It puts a question into the think tank: " Does God reach people who don't go to church or claim to know Jesus?" Can He use these people to reach others with
love and forgiveness, if they don't go to Church? What about the Jew? They seem to be doing very well with Godly and family and social issues. Something to think about..
Thank you for these thoughts!!!
ReplyDelete