A friend of mine, a pastor was relating a story of encouragement, or what began as an story of encouragement yesterday. A large group of young people of approximately 200 arrived from another state and wanted to evangelize in one of our inner city neighborhoods. God at work most definitely.
A pastor from one of the churches in the neighborhood stepped up to the plate to receive the newly saved into their congregation. Sounds like a great idea doesn't it? People turning their life over to Christ, and then having a local church to care for, love and disciple the new converts. Except there was one small problem.
That local congregation didn't want anymore members. They were afraid that new members would be aligned with the pastor and they would lose power and influence. This is a church that has "Missionary" as part of their name. Did you catch that? A missionary church that doesn't want any part of true mission. How sad.
The good news is that some other area churches grabbed the torch and ran with it. The bad news is that the worst enemy of Christianity seem to be Christians.
Powerlessness and the Church
4 days ago