May 04, 2007
The Invitation
As a child growing up I loved getting invited to a girlfriend’s house, but I rarely reciprocated. My somewhat dysfunctional family (alcoholic father) and home life wasn’t conducive to having friends over. Similarly, when the church has periods where the congregation resembles a dysfunctional family I feel my childhood anxieties and embarrassment returning. I just can’t bring myself to invite someone ‘home’ while the family is in upheaval. By its very nature, evangelism dictates we invite people to church. During troubled times saying my church is wonderful would feel like presenting an invitation under false pretense.
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Gail;
-----Char and I felt the same ambivalence when we were attending your church. It was not so much that there were different opinions and ideas among the members. There are always different ideas and opinions. Jesus prayed for the unity of His followers in John 17:20-21, yet the same Spirit that moved in Jesus moved Paul to write, “He who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.“ Unity is not in believing the same doctrines, singing the same music, or holding the same opinions. It is rather in the concern for each other‘s comfort, joy, and Spiritual health in the Lord. If you need contemporary music to celebrate your victory in the Lord on Sunday mornings, I will sing it with you and celebrate. If you need reverent worship in hymns on Sunday morning, I will sing those with you and worship. And if I need the same, then you will do likewise. That is unity. Unity is in pursuing peace and mutual up-building. It is not in pursuing a certain church style, or doctrine, or program of my or our thinking, while presenting a take-it or leave attitude. Yet the leaders at your church sided with one set of opinions there, and they launched themselves and the church into that very form of partisanship. I could not invite people to come participate in the glory of the Lord among the anguish of those who were hurt by that favoritism. And I certainly was not willing to participate in the cover-up that kept those offended brethren sequestered in a back room where guests were not apt to see them. So I never generated guests. I referred them to other churches. And I still do.
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