What is your church made up of?

What is your church made up of? 

Look around. 

Who attends? 

With whom do you connect? 

Who do you chat with? Who do you reach out to? Who puts a smile on your face?

Who doesn't fit into that box?

When someone comes in that smells a little funny or looks a little different, do you offer a seat next to you? 

Do you move?  

What is your reaction?

Recently, I was talking to a dear woman about a ministry that she is a part of.  The people live in a “rough” part of town and going there makes other church people noticeably uncomfortable.  As my friend was going around talking to various residents, she met a few ladies that were not your “typical” church goers.  They were a bit rough looking and probably did not know “church etiquette.” 

My friend had this SAD thought, "I wonder if these ladies would be welcome at our church."

When she told me this, I didn’t know whether to cry or scream!  These are the people that Jesus sat and ate with.  These are people that Jesus died for.

One of my favorite quotes is also my heartbeat  “The church is NOT a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.”  When dear people with drug addictions come to our church, our arms should be held out open to them. When prostitutes come, we should surround them with REAL love and affection. When "sinners" come to church, we should cheer.

And my dear friend, may I remind you that YOU are a sinner.  You need Jesus like every other person does. 

The angels in heaven rejoiced when you came to Jesus; can you not have that same joy when another sinner joins the team?

Our whited sepulcher is not so white when we look through the eyes of God.  It’s full of sin and filth.  Yet we keep scrubbing the outside to make it look like it’s clean.  

Let’s be REAL!

We may be fooling another church member, but we are not fooling God.  

I may appear righteous but there is a lot of  sin growing inside.

We may think that we are better then those who have some obvious outward sin, but we were still born sinners and we still have those sin habits we have to fight every day.  (Praise the Lord, we have the Holy Spirit to fight them for us.)

Dear friends, let’s open our doors. 

Let’s be excited when the un-churched “dirty” up our pews.  Let’s love on them, pray with them, and celebrate with them the gift of grace!

I didn’t say be like them or party with them, I said to love on them, pray with them, and worship God with them. 

The hospital beds in our church should be full.  Let's get off our pedestals, clean out the museum and put out the beds.  I want my church to be the one that Jesus visits. - Rejoicing in the Present.

And Jesus answering said unto them, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." - Luke 5:31-32