Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: A pastor told a struggling man not to come to church or he’d publicly humiliate him. Churches should follow Belong, Believe, Behave—not reject sinners at the door.
Today, it’s four degrees. We’re having a heat wave. I think later this week it’s supposed to be negative twenty or thirty coming up here. Some churches are as cold as this, and they shouldn’t be. They aren’t following the example of Christ.
I was talking with a man last week about just his situation. I think he’s facing divorce, basically struggling in life and looking for a new church. He has a bit of a background, so he directly approached the pastor to talk about his background, his history, his “used to be.” And the pastor looked at him and said, “Don’t come to this church. I will publicly announce your sins and publicly humiliate you if you come here.”
I was just blown away. My jaw dropped. My eyes went wide open, and we prayed. I prayed for the man. We talked and we shared, and I was dumbfounded. I’ve heard of that. I’ve seen variations of that, but not the flat out, obtuse sharing of that directly to this guy. I guess there’s some small kindness to that: He didn’t trick him and make him come in and then humiliate him. He told him what’s gonna happen. But I believe that churches need to have the philosophy that I heard about two years ago, and that’s Belong > Believe > Behave.
First, the church has to be welcoming, welcome to all types. Happy, sad, gay, queer, child molesters, like the worst of the worst. It needs to be open to that. Prostitutes to go biblically, sexual idolaters, sexual immoralists all need to be welcomed and given that love of belonging. God’s love.
And while they’re there, they have a need, they’ve come for a reason. They’ve come for a purpose. They’ve come to hear or see something. And while they’re there, their beliefs will change. And as their beliefs change and that alignment changes, that’s where we get believe. Belong, believe. And through the power of Christ, through the power of belonging, through the power of the love of Christ through people, those new beliefs form, biblical beliefs.
As those beliefs form, Psalm 139 comes into effect. “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” And by that searching and knowing my heart and telling me my sins, telling me how I don’t line up with what I now believe, my behavior changes. That’s Belong, Believe, Behave.
Some of the churches these days are going too far, and all they are is happy clubs. Let’s all belong. Let’s all get along. No, no belief here. No changing beliefs here. We don’t wanna change what you believe. Everything’s okay. Your truth and your truth and your truth. Each truth is okay. No. That church is going too far.
There’s one truth, and there’s one God. And our job is to belong, believe, behave. And are we gonna get it right? No. Are we gonna finish it? No. The sanctification process is a lifelong process of growing and learning, believing and behaving, being convicted, searching ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit, and finding that next sin, that next challenge, that next thing that grieves the Holy Spirit, and He wants us to change.
So examine your churches. The Christian Church has done a great disservice to the Lord, and I’ll talk about that tomorrow, I think. But examine your church and see if it’s a Belong, Believe, Behave church or if it’s just a belong. If it’s that, it’s just a social club. It ain’t no church.
You be blessed!
