Well, tonight, about halfway through our 25 songs, a drunk showed up at the door. Now mind you, we're not set up in rows like a regular church, partly because we don't want normal....we don't want what everyone else does. But because of that, we were in a big circle of several rows....so when the drunk walked in, two thirds of us could see him. How do I know he was drunk? He was barely walking down the street...the middle of the street...when we drove to church tonight. I'm guessing the music drew him in.
So he comes to the door, leaning on the doorway, holding himself up, no doubt...but instead of shooing him away, Cleo walked over and talked to him, came back and got him a chair...someone else went and got him some coffee. Cleo and another guy stayed over there with him, paid attention to him, put their arms around him and just basically showed him love and acceptance.
Oh, I'm not saying any big miracle happened tonight ... Maybe something will come of this...maybe it won't. But somehow, I think that this is what the church should look like. Jesus didn't run off the drunks and the prostitutes and the tax collectors. No. He loved on them. Rather than looking at him as a disruption, our guys extended love and mercy to him. Like he was valued. You never know how something like that is going to play out. May be just what the guy needed...to feel valuable.
I have no idea where this guy's story is going to end, but tonight, at our little church in el Valle, with new Christians who don't really know how they're "supposed" to do church, they acted more like Jesus' hands and feet than many established churches might do.
And I do believe that God was smiling....
I love our little church.
Well done, brother Cleo! Just the sort of thing I would expect from him.
ReplyDeleteBecki, you paint us a picture with your words and let us see what you see. Thank you :-)
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