Going home...

Do you know that it is sometimes nice to go home? Yesterday, Beth and I visited Grace Church in Nashville for their Easter service. We were with her parents and had a great time being there. I really enjoyed seeing some of my old students and finding out what changes have happened in their life since I last saw them. Seeing all our old friends was incredible also. It was just a nice visit to a great church.

Do you feel like that at your church or when you go to church? I know there are some churches that dump on the charm when you walk in the door, making each visitor feel like they are the best person in the world, but I also know of other churches where the new people are left out in the cold and if they left in the middle of the service, no one would notice. I think we tend to get caught up in our own lives to worry about those around us or we get so busy doing what we need to do at church, that we forget to worry about those who might be new.

I heard a pastor named Andy Stanley (from Northpoint) talk and he described the problems that most churches have with visitors as removing the bottom rungs of a ladder. We in the church have gotten so used to the way things work, or knowing what to expect, that we remove the steps to help people get to where we are. Whether it be in lingo, or music style, or where the rooms are, to the procedure or processes within the church.

I know this isn't all churches, but I do know that it is a problem that must be dealt with. We need to stop looking at ourselves as better than we are. We need to stop worrying about how people dress, act, smell, what they say or how they say it but we need to remember that we were all sinners and have been forgiven.

Sorry to seem so scattered.... Kind of lost my train of thought.