As predicted over at Ed‘s blog, the calls are steadily coming into the office from Christians in the area who are angry about the most recent card we sent out advertising CCC. If you haven’t seen the card, it’s the latest in our “Church For The Rest Of Us” series. The front has a picture of a guy smoking what appears to be a joint and the back basically states that no matter who you are or what you've done, grace is available to you and you are welcome at Community Christian Church. Our most recent angry phone call came from a lady stating that she could not believe that #1 - we were acknowledging the fact that people do drugs and #2 - we would invite them into our church. I’m not sure what the alternatives would be to that. Refuse to acknowledge that drug use is a problem in many peoples’ lives? Sounds naïve and detached from reality to me. Does it also mean before we invite someone to church that we pre-qualify them by checking to see if they’ve ever done drugs? Do I un-invite someone if I find out later that they do or have ever done drugs? I’m just guessing here but that might very well apply to over half the people sitting in ANY church on ANY given Sunday. And is drug use the only disqualifying element? Who else do we un-invite or refuse to invite? The sexually promiscuous? Thieves? Liars? People who curse? Greedy people? (wait a minute…this list is sounding a little familiar) And who gets to decide what’s on the list? I don’t know. It just seems to me that when Jesus talked about inviting people, He didn’t really have a list. Isn’t that what this story was all about??
Anyway, the woman who called said she was going public with her outrage. She said she was going to contact the paper and the postal service and anyone else she could get to listen. She said she would let the whole community know exactly what we were doing over here at our church.
I hope she does. That was precisely the reason we sent the card.
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9 comments:
I thank God for putting me in a church where everyone is welcome and accepted - not just the ones who have never sinned.
And to the woman - Go Girl! Spread the word that all are welcome at CCC! I will make room for all the new people who show up - I'll park in the field and continue going to the nooner and sit up front in the spit zone in the middle!
See all you gotta do is find the right person and send out just one card. I wonder if that lady realizes that because of her goal of "going public" that one more person might get to know Christ. God bless her.
Amen to that! I've been telling everyone that I can about our sign and our mailers...a little help from the "sound off" column in the Times-Herald could bring amazing numbers of lost, broken, weary, and hurt people to Christ!
CCC has been a great help in my life thanks to them accepting anyone. Someone i know did drugs once and our church saved them because we welcomed them in no matter what. I think you need to call this lady back and ask her for her address that way you can send her ALL of our cards. We have to make sure she has all the motive in the world to go public. With the new campus a few weeks from launching, we need the exposure. Thanks to people like her, we can continue to help people like the person I know. GO ANGRY GIRL!!!!!
I so identify with the grace message of these cards like the rest of you. The hard part of the grace message for me relates to how I need to gracefully deal with the people like this lady.
Sounds to me as if she is so self righteous that she (in her mind) does not need God, I guess......dont worry about it. God is working more through CCC that I have EVER seen Him work through any other church. The only qualification that is needed to attend church is to admit that we are all sinners, always will be, no matter WHAT the sin, and that we all need God. I am sorry that woman feels that way, and I will pray for her. Jesus did not hang out with the "self-righteous",Jesus hung out with the prostitutes, the lower class people, theives, servants, drunkards, and an entire range of people that the upper class could not understand. Sounds like a case of that. Just remember, whenever God is a work, the devil will find ways to attack. To me, this just proves that God is at work!!!! AMEN TO THAT!!! Keep up the great work!!
Once again, Jason, you prove yourself to be an excellent apologist for the true meaning of the gospel. Glad we get to be part of CCC and the ministry here. Soon, I won't even be sitting in the "spit zone"....I never thought of that!! YEAH!!!
I don't go to you guys church, but am thinking about visiting soon. How refreshing it is to see a church truly acting as the body of Christ. May Godd Bless You guys.
Ryan M. West
Welcome, Ryan!! I hope you're able to visit soon. When you do, be sure to introduce yourself.
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