Almost weekly, we hear about someone who has been invited to church but turns us down because they’ve been hurt in a church somewhere.
I get it. Churches are full of imperfect humans. Even if you have an entire congregation of people with the best of intentions, someone is bound to say something insensitive, say the wrong thing at the wrong time, or be misunderstood. There are just too many variables when you add the descendants of Adam to the mix.
However, if you’ve decided never to darken the door of ANY church because you were hurt in ONE church, I’m guessing the human that caused the hurt went further than a flippant remark that caught you wrong.
You see, since Jesus wants us to bring everyone into his presence and help them know Him better, we end up with people who are intentionally mean and selfish. Just like your workplace, the grocery store, and your favorite restaurant, you will encounter people who think they are better than everyone else and say horrible things that don’t honor Christ. There’s just no way around it. But I have a few perspectives I’d like you to consider.
First, maybe it would help you to understand that God isn’t happy about those people either. When a bunch of children had gathered around Jesus, He said, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!”
You are that little child, and if something someone said intentionally caused you to stumble and stay away from God’s house, He frowns on it. In fact, it upsets Him so much that it would be better for the person who offended you to tie a millstone around their neck and jump into a lake.
Yep, he’s that serious about you coming to Him. You should really feel sorry for the person who made you stumble.
Second, how do you feel when someone who hangs out around you does something horrible, and you get lumped in with them when people start casting blame? That’s what we do when we blame every single Christian for the acts of a few who may not even truly be followers of Christ. I would venture to say those offenders aren’t friends of Christ. They don’t appreciate the depths of their sin. If they did, they would never speak harshly about someone else in sin. Just because a person hangs out in church does not mean they are God followers.
I’m always curious. If you were offended in one McDonald’s, would you avoid every McDonald’s around the world? If you got bad service at one restaurant, does that mean you would never step foot in another restaurant ever again? That sounds a bit extreme, doesn’t it? But that’s what we do when we condemn every church because one church put the wrong people in leadership.
I can make you a couple of promises about Sycamore Tree Church. We are all humans, and we will get it wrong from time to time. However, when the wrong comes from the leadership, it wasn’t intentional. I can’t possibly speak for every person who walks through the doors, and we’ve even reprimanded long-time members when we saw them intentionally say hurtful things. You probably won’t see it happen because we try not to perpetuate the offense. We provide correction in private.