My owner is a very strange kind of human. He does all kinds of weird things, and his condition always gets worse as we approach Christmas time. Last month, he put out more than thirty light-up animals in the front garden! Fortunately, my blushes were spared because he couldn’t get hold of a light-up parrot. But instead, there’s still a large light-up flamingo out there!
Then, the other day, he suddenly appeared in the house with a church. Not a real one of course, but a ‘light-up’ church as part of his array of indoor Christmas decorations. When I first laid eyes on it, I thought “oh no!” Because unlit, it simply looked like a large chunk of worthless plastic. But after he plugged it in, and the lights came on, I had to agree that it looked rather nice. In fact, it looked bright and inviting.
And very begrudgingly, I have to admit that he’s probably ‘hit’ on something here, (even if he doesn’t realise it). Because the image that a real church projects to its surrounding community is so important. A large, dark, imposing building with narrow, dingy windows, will never encourage new humans to walk through its doors. And the welcome that everyone receives on the other side of those doors is just as important. It needs to be bright and uplifting. Warm and friendly. Relaxed and inclusive. For every church of God must welcome everyone, whoever they may be, if they walk in off the street with good intentions in their heart. And maybe some churches need to put up a banner outside to say just that. Something along the lines of: “Welcome! Come inside. Come and join the ‘Sinner’s Club.’ Paupers, parrots and politicians included!”
Comments