Going to Church ...

[Woody]

Many of you know that I don't make it to church very often. PTL this last Sabbath I was able to attend a church plant in a major US city.

This church was downtown in a rough neighborhood with closed shops in deteriorated condition all around. It was rather imposing to be in this kind of neighborhood. At least for this country bum who is alway frightened of the city.

The first thing I noticed was that the kind of people there were not your ususal church goers. Definately no ties were worn.

The pastor presented a class basically on "Basic Christianity". And this was basic. But for me it was SO refeshing. The pastor talked about what made a Christian and how to demonsrate it in relationship. The need to not gossip was talked about. But with the warning that inside the church ... that Christianity would probably not be well demonstrated. Those inside the church are human and church relations are hard. Thus 'grace' is needed.

It reminded me of the following quote:

Quote:

"The Body of Christ is the one organization in the world where the only requirement for membership is failure."

"The church is a corporate gathering of a bunch of failures." p. 79 of Daily Disciplines for the Chrisitan Man" by Bob Beltz

And this is pretty much what the pastor said but he just used different words.

Also what I found interesting was that this Adventist Church was not the only 'remnant" church. Just across the street on the same block was a church called "God's Remnant Church". Of course it had no people in it on Sabbath.

Back to the SDA church. Later the pastor told us that there were 17 new people there on Sabbath from off the streets. I am sure that none of these had much of any idea of adventism. But the word on the street is that this is a place to come where people will love , support you and teach you about Jesus..

Folks ... we need to get back to the basics.

[Zeta]

I would support this church for inviting non-adventist to attend,

all churches should open themselves up to outsiders.

It is keeping with the tradition of Christianity.

[GreatLakesGramma]

That is wonderful! I wish more Adventists would change their outreach methods. Too many seem stuck on the same old things, that maybe worked in the past, but don't work any more. Or even things that have never worked to begin with.

[phkrause]

It's great to hear that you were able to attend church Redwood. Sounds like you were blessed also.

pk

[Woody]

Yes. It was an inspiring experience. It was what I think more of our churches need to do to reach out to those who need Christ and are especially open and receptive.