Yes, We’re Open

A couple of days ago a community leader called to ask me  if I would help out with some of the flood relief. I said, “Sure”, and asked what that would mean. He asked if I would be willing to work with some government agencies that were trying to serve Northwest Atlanta in the area of flood relief. “Yep.” He asked if I would be willing to work with people of other faiths. “Yep.” Looking back on that conversation there were several things that were asked that have made me think, “At one point did churches start saying no?”

A volunteer from FEMA approached me yesterday and asked me if ours was the kind of church he could send people to. Seriously! This question is not born in the halls of ‘anti-religion government leaders’. It was not created by pagans or atheist. At some point, the church got the reputation for only being open to a certain type of person or a certain part of the population.

This is part of the reason old churches are dying and church plants are successful. A new church has this built-in message that screams, “Yes, We’re Open”. Maybe it’s because the new church staff will starve if people don’t come, but it is also born out of a major desire to be a part of seeing communities transformed by the love and message of Jesus Christ. That means no one gets left out.

To the hurting, to the addicted, to the Republican, to the Democrat, to the black and the brown and the white, to the lonely, we’re hanging the sign and flipping the switch to turn on the neon lights, “Yes, We’re Open.”

Everyone Belongs,

Paul