Happy Saturday!
Here are a few thoughts I had over my cup of coffee this morning. Feel free to pass it along to a friend or loved one or PASTOR (you’ll see why).
Have a wonderful weekend!
❤️✌🏻🤙🏻
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
In the first church I pastored back in 2008-ish, we had a giant sign that hung on the side of the building. I believe it had a light gray background with green writing and the sign boldly said, "COME AS YOU ARE!"
The sign was hanging on the building the night I arrived for my interview with the committee of people who were in charge of finding a new pastor and I immediately thought to myself, "this is my place - a place where everyone is welcomed, no strings attached."
You can imagine my confusion, then, when one night during one of our board meetings I was challenged with some questions ...
What will you do if someone comes to church dressed inappropriately?
What will you do if a gay couple comes to church?
What will you do if homeless people come to church looking for money?
What will you do if a non-church member wants to use our church for a wedding a service?
I quickly began to learn that there were a handful of individuals on the church board who were overly concerned about what we would do IF certain types of people came to our church ... certain types of people who were "different" than us.
The conversation quickly devolved into talk about whether we'd ...
Ask the person to leave and come back dressed more appropriately for church.
Refuse to serve the gay couple communion.
Tell the homeless person they'd need to come to church for a few months before there would be financial help.
Tell the couple that wants to get married in our sanctuary that they need to become members of our church first.
Sigh.
As my weeks rolled into months at that church and eventually surpassed a year, I began to realize that this wasn't the place for me because the "Come As You Are" sign sounded nice and looked good, but it was a lie.
The reality was that the system that was built on that hill (long before wide-eyed 25 year old Glenn arrived) was much more concerned with the ...
External choices.
Behaviors.
And beliefs.
... of people who came to the church than it was helping real, genuine people feel welcomed in all of their humanity so that they could be empowered to live full, complete, and whole lives as the wonderful creations of God that they are.
Churches (or other various 'ministries' - Bible studies, retreat centers, camps, podcast communities, etc.): we must do a better job at creating safe places for hurting people to land. If the people in our pews or in our midst feel like they need to be someone other than who they truly are and like they can't speak about their problems and struggles and lives without being perceived as "less than spiritual" or "less than human" ... the problem is with us, not them.
The urgency to address this problem has never been greater, people's lives and wellbeing are at stake.
❤️🙏🏻✌🏻🤙🏻