TALK ABOUT OUTREACH!

This classified ad, appearing in The Christian, official organ of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) caught my eye: “Faith Christian Church, Hollywood, Florida, accepts divorcees, alcoholics, gossipers, bigots, sex offenders, thieves, mixed marriages—God’s acceptance of all people as His children. Come as you are! Phone (305) 989-8116.”

They got more than they bargained for, their ad appearing in another paper that they didn’t have to pay for!

Looking at this ad in its most favorable light, we may assume that our brethren at Faith Christian in Hollywood, Florida desire to be a redemptive community that reaches out to all those who need God’s forgiveness, with no lines drawn. We are not to take the ad to mean that they in any sense approve of or even minimize the grossness of such sins as bigotry or gossip-the very idea of putting such sins in the same category as thievery! The ad says to me that no one has wandered so far as to be lost to God’s love and concern, and this church, recognizing the depths of God’s grace, welcomes them all to God’s redemptive font, including the sex offenders. Making no claim that they are too good to reject anyone but are themselves sinners saved by grace, they deem it appropriate for the lowliest of sinners to sit with them as part of God’s family on earth, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

The ad says even more than that to me. It reads as if the folk at Faith Christian are sensitive to the needs of a lot of people that are usually looked down on, or at least ignored,—and sometimes maltreated—by many churches. They welcome the divorcees, and do not run them off, like a lot of our churches do. Sex offenders have lots of problems with the law, themselves, other people and are badly in need of help. Good for Faith Christian for saying to such ones. We love you. It is altogether possible that most sex offenders would suppose that they would not be really welcomed at any church anywhere. But they would at Faith Christian.

Then there is the poor alcoholic that most people condemn but few understand, and almost nobody loves. But they will be welcomed, without censure, at Faith Christian. When enough churches are really like that, loving each other as Jesus loves them and in turn reaching out in tender loving care to suffering humanity, then the world will believe that we are truly the disciples of Jesus.

John Locke, recognized by our pioneers as “the Christian philosopher,” wrote a great deal about the church, urging, for one thing, that it be separate from the state, which was “heresy” in those days. He even wrote a commentary on Paul’s epistles, which seems unlikely for a philosopher. But the point I want from him in this context is a statement he made in his Letter Concerning Toleration to the effect that “I esteem toleration to be the chief characteristic of the church.” While others will see love as the chief trait, it could be argued that toleration (or forbearance) is love exemplified. We in the Churches of Christ are not exactly known as a tolerant or forbearing people, are we? Those that the Florida church welcome into their assembly would feel uncomfortable in many of our churches. I am persuaded that many of our people feel uncomfortable. Locke says toleration should be our most outstanding characteristic. That isn’t bad!

Locke even uses our name when he’ says this: “How can that be called the Church of Christ which is established upon laws that are not His, and which excludes such persons from its communion as He will one day receive into the Kingdom of Heaven.” We drive some of our own divorced people from our embrace, condemning them. It will be embarrassing to find that the Lord has accepted them into his kingdom. And what does that do to our claim of being the Church of Christ?, asks the philosopher.

The primitive saints reached out to those in real trouble and deep sin. Tit. 3:3 says “We were once” and then names foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to lusts and pleasures, malice, envy, hatred. And the Corinthian church had those with even a more wretched past: fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers (1 Cor. 6:9-10). The good news reached out to them and they were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”

That is outreach! Faith Christian seems to be thinking in these terms. More power to them!

If our churches are not like that, maybe it is because we do not have the one mark that John Locke saw as necessary to be the Church of Christ. Maybe we don’t have that loving toleration that makes those who need us most feel comfortable in our presence. Maybe we are too prim, too nice, too good, too righteous, and too right. —the Editor