Saturday, January 24, 2015

Outreach

                                         I wonder what would happen if wealthy, predominantly white Churches took the lead in incorporating the destitute and homeless, into their fold?
                        
                             I'm not talking about speaking from the Pulpit and philosophically attempting to change ideas and values...
                           
                                    Not limited outreaches, where members venture into different neighborhoods and cultures, to bring Jesus's message of salvation and love...
                                      Maybe instead of sending a few people with the message, the Churches that could afford it, sent busses to those areas of homeless and hurting and  brought them into the Church, itself..
                            Not as a token, one time experiment or statement, but a real and committed attempt at bringing all together, in Gods house?
                                             Not a ministry, but an invitation...
                         Personally, I don't know how comfortable I would feel in a Church that bussed in as many of the people in Albanys downtown missions that wanted to come, opened its coffee bar to them and fed them thru donated love offerings, from the congregation...
                   
                 I doubt I'd  be comfortable sitting behind an unhygienic, still active crack addict...
                                                                  Would you?
                               Can you imagine a sanctuary filled with prostitutes, thieves and criminals, of all colors, unscreened and freely walking around our children?
                                          It would be a security nightmare...
                          They have their own Churches and their own resources, don't they?
                            
           The Shepard did not stay home in comfort, when even one of his sheep was lost...
                      How many of Gods sheep are still lost, awaiting a Shepard to not go to them with words and abandon them, but to pick them up, upon their backs and carry them home?
                                                           I'm just thinking...
                           Can you imagine the possibilities if affluent Churches all did this?
                                          If those lost were sought after with the same zeal, the same resources, by it's members, that the simple Shepard demonstrated...             
                                                                   Not my Church...
                                        But someone else's Church, somewhere else...

                                                 I bet it would be interesting...
                               

No comments:

Post a Comment