Would You Attend a Church that Thinks Like This?
The good folks at Marshall Ford Fellowship here in Austin see this in the church’s program each week. Would you attend a church that published this list:
Are you a guest / member?
Are you an outcast or a victim?
- Flunk out, dropout, burn out
- Broke or broken
- Brain damaged, incurably ill
- Swindled, shoved aside, replaced
- Over employed, underemployed, unemployable
- Parents of failed children
- Children of failed parents
- Barren, pregnant too many times, pregnant at the wrong time, a mother out of wedlock
- Lonely, incompetent, stupid
- Emotionally starved, Emotionally dead
- Violated, raped, molested
- HIV positive, herpes ridden, w/ STD
- Addicted, divorced, abandoned, widowed
Are you Immoral?
- Prostitute, pimp, pusher, pervert
- Had an abortion; preformed one…
- Murderer, child molester
- Brutal, bigoted, glutton; gossip
- Pornographer, addicted to porn
- War criminal, sadist, terrorist
- Filthy or filthy rich
- Unforgiven, feel unforgiven
- Are you unforgiving
Do you appear on the Apostle Paul’s list:
- Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, active homosexual
- Thief, greedy, drunk, slanderer, swindler,
- Satanist,
- Rob the aged & weak
- Cheater, liar
Are you a church wash out?
- Living in sin
- “A spiritual zero; a mini-faith”
- Made a mess of your life?
- Been ‘burned’ or rejected by the ‘religious?’
Well… welcome to the club! “….and such were some of [us]!” (1 Cor. 6:11)
Heavens… such were all of us!
If you are beyond the limits of human acceptability
If you are unworthy
If you are unwanted
You welcome here!
There is healing here!
There is hope here!
We love you in the Lord Jesus!
The only standard is that you be unworthy!
WHY? BECAUSE JESUS IS HERE!
THE BODY OF CHRIST IS HERE!
AND HIS PEOPLE, WHO ARE BEING CHANGED BY HIM, ARE HERE!
He says and we say:
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and YOU SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. [Matt 11:28,29 NAS]
We call it ‘The Kingdom Among us!’
“In The Kingdom there is forgiveness and healing that knows no limits. Blessed are all as they flee into the arms of the Kingdom among us!”
Christians? Church member?
- Does this list make you squirm a bit?
- Are you tempted to say, “I don’t want the Kingdom open to people like this!”
- Listen! We can’t bring Him or His message down to our size.
- If the church is full of the totally nice, something is wrong…
- We are called and being equipped to be Jesus to our visitors and fellow church members!
All riotously celebrated in the party of Jesus!!!
Welcome to Marshall Ford Fellowship.
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So, what do you think of the list? If you were a guest at that church and saw the list, how would you feel? If your own church started sharing this list, how would you react?
Personally, I love it and I applaud Marshall Ford for having the guts to publish it. I intend to read it in a message at ACF soon.
What do you say?
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