Journey Into The Unknown part 7

In my last post I wrote about what I'm looking for in a church. A pastor friend who saw it commented that my list would help anyone looking for a church. I hope so. That's why I write.

Another friend commented on his own journey--he and his family are also looking for a new church. Something I wrote him is also appropriate here: "...once having made the hardest part of the journey (deciding to leave a church) the rest of the journey is easy by comparison." It's still hard to find a church that fits. There are so many variables that to have them all fit together simultaneously is improbable. That's why it is important to not expect the "perfect church".

The hardest part, though, really is making the decision to leave. Others can't completely understand why their friend is leaving. Some relationships are broken. Some are strained. And some tend to just wither away without the regular weekly face-to-face contact. You know, "absence makes the heart grow fonder--of somebody else". Happily, though, some relationships endure. Typically they endure because the relationship is so important to both parties that they work at keeping it going.

Today we went to a new church. My experience there today was very encouraging. One thing I heard reminded me of something a member of the class I used to teach said when asking if I would be interested in teaching that class: "I want a teacher who knows more about the Bible than I do." (That was always a challenge because he is very knowledgeable about the Bible.) 

In the pastor's sermon this morning, I heard something that I didn't know. He was talking about the passage in Matthew 22: 1-14 where the king invited guests to a wedding banquet for his son. One of the invited guests was rebuked and cast out because he didn't have on "wedding clothes". The new thing I learned (and that opened up a whole new meaning for the passage) is that in that culture, it would be the host's responsibility to supply "wedding clothes" for guests who didn't have them. [The pastor displayed a garment provided to him for a wedding in Africa that he had been invited to.]

The reason a guest would not have on the appropriate wedding clothes was because he chose not to wear what had been provided by the host. Everyone was invited ("both good and bad'). Whether because of pride or just the desire to come on his own terms, exclusion from the banquet was because he refused what was provided, not because of the host's ungraciousness.

The point: we are to invite everyone to participate in the kingdom, and welcome everyone to the church. If they refuse to change and meet the Lord's standards (and thus be voluntarily excluded), that's their choice. We will have done our part to be obedient, and the Lord will have done His part in making the way possible.

Its relevance for our journey? This appears to be a church that reaches out to everyone and welcomes all who come, but recognizes that some people won't come to Christ or His church because they don't want to change. And, to come to the Lord's wedding banquet, righteous wedding clothes are required.