"You're bringing the wrong class of people to church."
He was a young, full-time preacher, and this particular congregation was quite sure they were the answer to any young preacher's prayer. He was told that he was so lucky such a wonderful congregation hired him, a group so faithful that the Sunday morning attendance and the Wednesday night attendance were exactly the same, and who could certainly teach him a few things about being a gospel preacher.
He was still new to the community and had no direct contacts nor any referrals from the members. So he did it the old-fashioned way—he went out door-knocking, passing out literature and offering personal Bible studies. He quickly discovered that the poorer, blue collar neighborhoods were the most accepting and willing to talk, even if only on the door step, while the upper middle-class were more likely to slam the door in his face.
Gradually, several of the ones he had met and studied with came to church. One Sunday, when four or five of them were standing to the side after services, not one member went to meet them and shake their hands. Finally a younger couple, saw what was happening and headed straight to the visitors to meet them and greet them. This should have shamed everyone else, all of whom were older and considered themselves pillars of the church, but it did not. At the next business meeting, the statement at the top of this essay was made. Never mind that the young preacher was the only one bringing anyone to church—they were not the preferred class.
I hope you are completely horrified that such a thing would be said at all, much less by a former elder who had moved there from another location. But take a minute now and examine your own hearts. Who do you run to greet? The well-dressed ones or the leather-clad tattooed ones? The ones who obviously know how to act in a worship service, or the ones who haven't seen a razor in a week or a barber in a couple of months? None of the people who were considered "the wrong class" were dirty, unshaven, loud, nor did they "act out" as some might say. They simply did not wear jackets and ties, skirts and heels in a day when that is what everyone wore.
Realize this—unless you were raised going to church, you might never have listened to someone knocking on your door. People with solid marriages and strong nuclear families who do not have major problems, don't see a need for God. The gospel has always spoken loudest to those who need it the most. For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called (1Cor 1:26).
This congregation wanted to pick and choose the ones they thought worthy of them. Jesus had a parable for them. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:9-14).
People like me who have always been in a church building on Sunday morning, who never had difficulties being tempted by liquor, drugs, and promiscuity, need to be grateful for the legacy our parents left us and then be even more determined to help those who were not so fortunate. When someone comes out of a pagan world, he has a lot more baggage to unpack and leave behind. Let's welcome them gladly and help them do it.
Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?...Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits (Jas 2:5; 1:9-11).
Dene Ward
He was a young, full-time preacher, and this particular congregation was quite sure they were the answer to any young preacher's prayer. He was told that he was so lucky such a wonderful congregation hired him, a group so faithful that the Sunday morning attendance and the Wednesday night attendance were exactly the same, and who could certainly teach him a few things about being a gospel preacher.
He was still new to the community and had no direct contacts nor any referrals from the members. So he did it the old-fashioned way—he went out door-knocking, passing out literature and offering personal Bible studies. He quickly discovered that the poorer, blue collar neighborhoods were the most accepting and willing to talk, even if only on the door step, while the upper middle-class were more likely to slam the door in his face.
Gradually, several of the ones he had met and studied with came to church. One Sunday, when four or five of them were standing to the side after services, not one member went to meet them and shake their hands. Finally a younger couple, saw what was happening and headed straight to the visitors to meet them and greet them. This should have shamed everyone else, all of whom were older and considered themselves pillars of the church, but it did not. At the next business meeting, the statement at the top of this essay was made. Never mind that the young preacher was the only one bringing anyone to church—they were not the preferred class.
I hope you are completely horrified that such a thing would be said at all, much less by a former elder who had moved there from another location. But take a minute now and examine your own hearts. Who do you run to greet? The well-dressed ones or the leather-clad tattooed ones? The ones who obviously know how to act in a worship service, or the ones who haven't seen a razor in a week or a barber in a couple of months? None of the people who were considered "the wrong class" were dirty, unshaven, loud, nor did they "act out" as some might say. They simply did not wear jackets and ties, skirts and heels in a day when that is what everyone wore.
Realize this—unless you were raised going to church, you might never have listened to someone knocking on your door. People with solid marriages and strong nuclear families who do not have major problems, don't see a need for God. The gospel has always spoken loudest to those who need it the most. For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called (1Cor 1:26).
This congregation wanted to pick and choose the ones they thought worthy of them. Jesus had a parable for them. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:9-14).
People like me who have always been in a church building on Sunday morning, who never had difficulties being tempted by liquor, drugs, and promiscuity, need to be grateful for the legacy our parents left us and then be even more determined to help those who were not so fortunate. When someone comes out of a pagan world, he has a lot more baggage to unpack and leave behind. Let's welcome them gladly and help them do it.
Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?...Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits (Jas 2:5; 1:9-11).
Dene Ward
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