| Are You a Welcoming Church? |
| Are You a Welcoming Church? also titled... Are You a Welcoming Missional Christian |
All the people on the following list and more may come to your church door, or, if you are being missional, you
may be going where they are. (I put everyone on this list so please don't be offended if you find yourself
mentioned). They are adulterers, the homeless, the sexually immoral, couples that are cohabitating, the poor,
prostitutes, non-believers, people of other faiths, lgbt individuals, common folks, atheists, conservatives,
strippers, liberals, divorcees, republicans, drug addicts, democrats, remarrieds, alcoholics, people in cults, people
from the inner city, and ex-prisoners, etc. etc. etc.
How are you going to greet them?
And what are you going to do if they respond to the gospel but continue in some of the life they are in?
What principles will guide you?
How will you relate?
Will you consider them Christians if they still have practices you don’t agree with?
Or will you consider them deceived sinners who aren’t really Christians?
(A word of caution if this is your answer: Jesus tells us that He will judge us the same way we pass judgment on
others. (Matthew 7:1-5) I would hope you would respond graciously to all of the above people.
Lets look at our world today...
I believe we are in a time frame similar to that of the time of the book of Judges in the Old Testament when
everybody did what was right in their own sight (Judges 21:25). This time is also similar to a time when the book
of the law was lost (2 Kings 22:8-13). The word of the Lord is not lost today. But for the most part, our culture
today is biblically illiterate. And people interpret the bible differently. These differences show up in our beliefs
our attitudes and the way we express those beliefs in our church, in our world, and in our politics.
Also, we are not operating under in an authoritarian mode such as existed in the time of Old Testament kings
when the King’s word was law. People think for themselves today. The pastor is no longer viewed as the wisest
man in town. And even doctors are questioned and sometimes people research their own illness on line and seek
second opinions. The Marcus Welby days are over. Also, many people have witnessed the harm that came when
legalism was the order of the day and they are reacting against it. We could argue that they have overreacted but
that does not change the present reality. This is our culture today.
So what do we do now?
The important thing to remember is that God is sovereign (Isaiah 50:6-8). God is gracious (Ephesians 1:7-8).
And that the same God who was perfectly able to work His sovereignty and grace in the time period of the book of
Judges and first and second Kings is perfectly able to work His sovereignty and grace today. So we can either run
around like chicken-little and say that the sky is falling. Or we can trust God and seek to be His ambassadors (II
Cor 5:20) and agents of grace in the world we live in today. That is the intent of this paper and of this website.
So how does God’s grace operate with people different than us? Is God Welcoming?
Lets look back into the Old Testament and see...
Lets look at Abraham in the Old Testament. Abraham believed God and God accredited it to him as
righteousness (Genesis 15:6). But Abraham encouraged his wife to be dishonest in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-13). He
had relations with his servant Hagar to try to help fulfill God’s promise for a son (Genesis 16:1-4). Abraham also
had children to concubines (Genesis 25:5-6). Yet Paul looked to Abraham as an example of justification by faith,
a cornerstone principle for Christians today (Romans 4:1-3, 9-13). God seemed to be willing and able to have a
relationship with Abraham and even call him righteous although many today would question Abraham’s actions.
Lets look at Judah. One of his sons dies. The son’s wife Tamar, according to the custom of the day, looks to the
man’s brothers to marry her and provide her with children in the name of her dead husband. Without going into
the details of this, ultimately no one is willing to do this for her. So Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute and
when Judah approaches her for sex they agree on a payment. (Judah does not realize who he is dealing with.).
She becomes pregnant by her father in law. (Note: this is an offense that normally has great penalty) When her
father in law (Judah) finds she is pregnant he calls for her to be put to death because she has been playing the
harlot. Then she reveals evidence that indeed it is Judah who has made her pregnant. Judah then relents
declaring her more righteous than him because he would not give one of his sons to be her husband.
(Genesis 38) One of her sons is named Perez who is named in both Matthew and Luke's geneological lines of
Jesus Christ. Though this child, Perez, is conceived through an immoral act, God is not ashamed to have him as
part of the human linage of Jesus Christ.
Lets look at examples from times after the law of Moses was given..
In the book of Judges we are told of a prophet traveling with his concubine. Why does the prophet have a
concubine and not a wife? We are also told that the prophet offers his concubine to some gang rapists in order to
spare his life. After the gang rapists rape and kill his concubine he cuts her up into pieces and sends parts of her
body throughout Israel. He does this in order to gather Israel together to take action against the tribe that did
this to his concubine. You can read the entire story here in Judges 19. We do not hear much about this prophet
afterward but God works with Israel to avenge the death of the prophet's concubine. These are strange stories to
our ears but God is willing to work with the people involved.
Lets look at King David. King David had many wives*. He also had many concubines (2 Samuel 5:12-16). But
the only relationship God called David on the carpet for was his relationship with Bathsheba in which David had
the woman’s husband killed to cover up her becoming pregnant by David (2 Samuel 11 and 2 Samuel 12:1-24).
Additionally, David had a messenger killed just for honoring Kings Saul’s request. Yet David is still referred to
in the New Testament as a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).
*( King David’s 8 known wives.. 1 Samuel 19:11 Michal, 1 Samuel 25:38-42 Abigail, 2 Samuel 3:5 Eglah, 2
Samuel 11-12 Bathsheba, 1 Samuel 25:43 Ahinoam, 2 Samuel 3:1-4 Haggith and Abital and Maccah. )
All of these passages affirm the grace of God and his willingness to work with many who we might not welcome in
our churches today. Though we would might call them sinners if they walked into our church today, God called
them righteous and holy. That doesn't mean that they led perfect lives but it does mean that they responded to
God as he was leading them.
Lets look at New Testament examples from the life of Jesus
When Jesus goes into Samaria he meets with a Samaritan woman who has had five husbands and the person she
is living with now is not her husband (John 4 : 17-19). Other than using his prophetic knowledge to reveal that he
knows this about her Jesus does not remain there in the conversation. He instead, having gotten her attention,
tells her about true worship and reveals that he is Messiah (John 4:21-26). She becomes a witness to Jesus back
in her home town. Jesus is willing to have this happen
When a Roman Centurion came to him to have his servant healed Jesus did not question why the man was part
of the military of Rome which was occupying Israel, nor did he talk about issues of slavery. He healed the man’s
servant(Matthew 8:5-13). He also said he had not found this much faith in all of Israel. He is willing to work
with this outsider and be a source of healing as well.
It is very rare for Jesus to actually tell someone to stop sinning or for Jesus to say :”Go and sin no more.” In
fact there are only two places in scripture where he specifically does that. One is in John 5:14 where, after he
heals the man who was unable to walk he later tells him to stop sinning lest something worse happens to him.
The other is where he pardons the woman caught in adultery (John 8:11). I am not saying that it is not important
to tell people not to sin. I am simply saying that those are not the first words out of Jesus’ mouth nor should it
be the first words out of our mouths. For those biblical scholars that want to point out to me the many times
Jesus talked about sin click here for an entire list. Again, I am not against speaking out against sin. But where
we do that and how we do that is important if we want to be an effective ambassador of grace following Christ’s
example.
So we return to the question: Are you a welcoming church? Is God welcoming?
I seriously question whether many of the people of the Old testament would be welcome in our church today.
Whether it would be Abraham with his surrogate wife or later with his concubines I doubt he would be welcome.
His claims of being declared righteous before God would be considered laughable to us.
Judah, a man who had sex with his daughter in law but justified it by saying he thought it was a prostitute would
not be welcome either. His claims of being a son of Israel and being part of God's chosen people a holy nation
would also be met with much ridicule.
I doubt the prophet of Judges 19 would do any better than those I have mentioned already. How would we view
his relationship with a concubine? And how would we view what he did when threatened by gang rapists. And how
would we view his response to when his concubine was killed? I do not see a favorable response by the church.
Need I go on to King David? A family of his size with multiple wives and concubines and children to those wives
and concubines would fill up half the church and most, if not all, of the nursery. And what would we do with his
claims that he was a man after God's own heart that would do everything God asked him to do. I'm afraid our
response would be more of laughter and ridicule. If we managed not to laugh or ridicule I am sure that behind
his back we would be questioning just what kind of a person he was.
Time and space do not permit a continuance of these examples whether it be King Solomon, or Rahab, or
Jephtah. The point is that God worked with all of these individuals and apparently accepted people that we would
reject.
In the New Testament we see more of the same: Jesus welcoming all that came to Him, bringing healing when
needed and leading those who were willing into a relationship with God.
So what do we do with this?
We affirm the grace of God. God's grace is something all of us need. Without the grace of God none of us would
be heaven bound. We must remember that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
and that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentence.. That’s why we need Jesus. To give you a better idea
of where I believe we should be on this here is an excellent example of a church welcoming statement at this
Lutheran website.
This is not "Christian-lite". This is not an 'anything goes' theology. This is God, extending His grace to people
whereever they are in their lives and drawing them to Himself. This is holiness to the Lord. It is true whether in
Old Testament or New Testament times or present times
So go....make disciples ... encourage them .. guide them ... direct them ... pray with them .. be gracious to
them. Join with them in the common spiritual journey we have of becoming more like Jesus.
may be going where they are. (I put everyone on this list so please don't be offended if you find yourself
mentioned). They are adulterers, the homeless, the sexually immoral, couples that are cohabitating, the poor,
prostitutes, non-believers, people of other faiths, lgbt individuals, common folks, atheists, conservatives,
strippers, liberals, divorcees, republicans, drug addicts, democrats, remarrieds, alcoholics, people in cults, people
from the inner city, and ex-prisoners, etc. etc. etc.
How are you going to greet them?
And what are you going to do if they respond to the gospel but continue in some of the life they are in?
What principles will guide you?
How will you relate?
Will you consider them Christians if they still have practices you don’t agree with?
Or will you consider them deceived sinners who aren’t really Christians?
(A word of caution if this is your answer: Jesus tells us that He will judge us the same way we pass judgment on
others. (Matthew 7:1-5) I would hope you would respond graciously to all of the above people.
Lets look at our world today...
I believe we are in a time frame similar to that of the time of the book of Judges in the Old Testament when
everybody did what was right in their own sight (Judges 21:25). This time is also similar to a time when the book
of the law was lost (2 Kings 22:8-13). The word of the Lord is not lost today. But for the most part, our culture
today is biblically illiterate. And people interpret the bible differently. These differences show up in our beliefs
our attitudes and the way we express those beliefs in our church, in our world, and in our politics.
Also, we are not operating under in an authoritarian mode such as existed in the time of Old Testament kings
when the King’s word was law. People think for themselves today. The pastor is no longer viewed as the wisest
man in town. And even doctors are questioned and sometimes people research their own illness on line and seek
second opinions. The Marcus Welby days are over. Also, many people have witnessed the harm that came when
legalism was the order of the day and they are reacting against it. We could argue that they have overreacted but
that does not change the present reality. This is our culture today.
So what do we do now?
The important thing to remember is that God is sovereign (Isaiah 50:6-8). God is gracious (Ephesians 1:7-8).
And that the same God who was perfectly able to work His sovereignty and grace in the time period of the book of
Judges and first and second Kings is perfectly able to work His sovereignty and grace today. So we can either run
around like chicken-little and say that the sky is falling. Or we can trust God and seek to be His ambassadors (II
Cor 5:20) and agents of grace in the world we live in today. That is the intent of this paper and of this website.
So how does God’s grace operate with people different than us? Is God Welcoming?
Lets look back into the Old Testament and see...
Lets look at Abraham in the Old Testament. Abraham believed God and God accredited it to him as
righteousness (Genesis 15:6). But Abraham encouraged his wife to be dishonest in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-13). He
had relations with his servant Hagar to try to help fulfill God’s promise for a son (Genesis 16:1-4). Abraham also
had children to concubines (Genesis 25:5-6). Yet Paul looked to Abraham as an example of justification by faith,
a cornerstone principle for Christians today (Romans 4:1-3, 9-13). God seemed to be willing and able to have a
relationship with Abraham and even call him righteous although many today would question Abraham’s actions.
Lets look at Judah. One of his sons dies. The son’s wife Tamar, according to the custom of the day, looks to the
man’s brothers to marry her and provide her with children in the name of her dead husband. Without going into
the details of this, ultimately no one is willing to do this for her. So Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute and
when Judah approaches her for sex they agree on a payment. (Judah does not realize who he is dealing with.).
She becomes pregnant by her father in law. (Note: this is an offense that normally has great penalty) When her
father in law (Judah) finds she is pregnant he calls for her to be put to death because she has been playing the
harlot. Then she reveals evidence that indeed it is Judah who has made her pregnant. Judah then relents
declaring her more righteous than him because he would not give one of his sons to be her husband.
(Genesis 38) One of her sons is named Perez who is named in both Matthew and Luke's geneological lines of
Jesus Christ. Though this child, Perez, is conceived through an immoral act, God is not ashamed to have him as
part of the human linage of Jesus Christ.
Lets look at examples from times after the law of Moses was given..
In the book of Judges we are told of a prophet traveling with his concubine. Why does the prophet have a
concubine and not a wife? We are also told that the prophet offers his concubine to some gang rapists in order to
spare his life. After the gang rapists rape and kill his concubine he cuts her up into pieces and sends parts of her
body throughout Israel. He does this in order to gather Israel together to take action against the tribe that did
this to his concubine. You can read the entire story here in Judges 19. We do not hear much about this prophet
afterward but God works with Israel to avenge the death of the prophet's concubine. These are strange stories to
our ears but God is willing to work with the people involved.
Lets look at King David. King David had many wives*. He also had many concubines (2 Samuel 5:12-16). But
the only relationship God called David on the carpet for was his relationship with Bathsheba in which David had
the woman’s husband killed to cover up her becoming pregnant by David (2 Samuel 11 and 2 Samuel 12:1-24).
Additionally, David had a messenger killed just for honoring Kings Saul’s request. Yet David is still referred to
in the New Testament as a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).
*( King David’s 8 known wives.. 1 Samuel 19:11 Michal, 1 Samuel 25:38-42 Abigail, 2 Samuel 3:5 Eglah, 2
Samuel 11-12 Bathsheba, 1 Samuel 25:43 Ahinoam, 2 Samuel 3:1-4 Haggith and Abital and Maccah. )
All of these passages affirm the grace of God and his willingness to work with many who we might not welcome in
our churches today. Though we would might call them sinners if they walked into our church today, God called
them righteous and holy. That doesn't mean that they led perfect lives but it does mean that they responded to
God as he was leading them.
Lets look at New Testament examples from the life of Jesus
When Jesus goes into Samaria he meets with a Samaritan woman who has had five husbands and the person she
is living with now is not her husband (John 4 : 17-19). Other than using his prophetic knowledge to reveal that he
knows this about her Jesus does not remain there in the conversation. He instead, having gotten her attention,
tells her about true worship and reveals that he is Messiah (John 4:21-26). She becomes a witness to Jesus back
in her home town. Jesus is willing to have this happen
When a Roman Centurion came to him to have his servant healed Jesus did not question why the man was part
of the military of Rome which was occupying Israel, nor did he talk about issues of slavery. He healed the man’s
servant(Matthew 8:5-13). He also said he had not found this much faith in all of Israel. He is willing to work
with this outsider and be a source of healing as well.
It is very rare for Jesus to actually tell someone to stop sinning or for Jesus to say :”Go and sin no more.” In
fact there are only two places in scripture where he specifically does that. One is in John 5:14 where, after he
heals the man who was unable to walk he later tells him to stop sinning lest something worse happens to him.
The other is where he pardons the woman caught in adultery (John 8:11). I am not saying that it is not important
to tell people not to sin. I am simply saying that those are not the first words out of Jesus’ mouth nor should it
be the first words out of our mouths. For those biblical scholars that want to point out to me the many times
Jesus talked about sin click here for an entire list. Again, I am not against speaking out against sin. But where
we do that and how we do that is important if we want to be an effective ambassador of grace following Christ’s
example.
So we return to the question: Are you a welcoming church? Is God welcoming?
I seriously question whether many of the people of the Old testament would be welcome in our church today.
Whether it would be Abraham with his surrogate wife or later with his concubines I doubt he would be welcome.
His claims of being declared righteous before God would be considered laughable to us.
Judah, a man who had sex with his daughter in law but justified it by saying he thought it was a prostitute would
not be welcome either. His claims of being a son of Israel and being part of God's chosen people a holy nation
would also be met with much ridicule.
I doubt the prophet of Judges 19 would do any better than those I have mentioned already. How would we view
his relationship with a concubine? And how would we view what he did when threatened by gang rapists. And how
would we view his response to when his concubine was killed? I do not see a favorable response by the church.
Need I go on to King David? A family of his size with multiple wives and concubines and children to those wives
and concubines would fill up half the church and most, if not all, of the nursery. And what would we do with his
claims that he was a man after God's own heart that would do everything God asked him to do. I'm afraid our
response would be more of laughter and ridicule. If we managed not to laugh or ridicule I am sure that behind
his back we would be questioning just what kind of a person he was.
Time and space do not permit a continuance of these examples whether it be King Solomon, or Rahab, or
Jephtah. The point is that God worked with all of these individuals and apparently accepted people that we would
reject.
In the New Testament we see more of the same: Jesus welcoming all that came to Him, bringing healing when
needed and leading those who were willing into a relationship with God.
So what do we do with this?
We affirm the grace of God. God's grace is something all of us need. Without the grace of God none of us would
be heaven bound. We must remember that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
and that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentence.. That’s why we need Jesus. To give you a better idea
of where I believe we should be on this here is an excellent example of a church welcoming statement at this
Lutheran website.
This is not "Christian-lite". This is not an 'anything goes' theology. This is God, extending His grace to people
whereever they are in their lives and drawing them to Himself. This is holiness to the Lord. It is true whether in
Old Testament or New Testament times or present times
So go....make disciples ... encourage them .. guide them ... direct them ... pray with them .. be gracious to
them. Join with them in the common spiritual journey we have of becoming more like Jesus.
Missional Church