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In my strange collection of busy moments I seem to have missed posting that my novel Vengeance is in the process of a blog tour. To find out what they are saying (and I haven't yet looked myself so I could very well be shooting myself in the foot) go to http://cfrblog.blogspot.com/ and see what they have to say.
Moving on from there, my apologies for all of you who came to my site only to find that the post I had written wasn't there. So, we'll try again.
Recently, my daughters went shopping in a nearby mall. They took our oldest grand daughter who is not yet two but is quite proud of her attempts at toilet training. The girls were trying on clothes in a particular store when my grand daughter informed them she had to go potty. Imagine our surprise when the girls found out that they could NOT use the store washroom. That it was only for employees. Needless to say, the clothes went unpurchased and the girls found another store only too willing to accommodate the little tyke's needs.
Does this ring true to you? I must admit, I kind of squirmed when I thought about it. How often do we sit in our church pews and surround ourselves with that feeling of exclusivity. We're members after all. We get the priviledges of church membership. While I understand the need for membership, I sometimes wonder if we lose peoples' interests in our determination to keep the lines firmly in place. Yes, I realize that we have to be careful to place people of sound theology in teaching positions but does it really hurt to have a non-member helping on the potluck dinner committee? Is the church going to collapse if the janitor hasn't signed on the dotted line or if a VBS camp incorporates helpers who haven't yet made that step? Of course not! I don't remember Jesus telling us anything about membership. But he did tell us to love one another as he loved us and that through that love others would come to know him.
That store manager didn't get it. She didn't understand that her callous behaviour lost her several customers--not just one. And often our churches don't get it either. When we live in our elite little worlds that don't allow non-members to become actively involved in the ministry we are at risk of losing those workers and the people around them. What is a soul worth these days? A bit of humility? A bit of mercy? Perhaps an overlooking of the letter of the law for the sake of grace? Something to ponder. |
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