one day last week i was sitting outside on the front porch of the gcw with two friends: kim, who had just graduated from uf and completed the metanoia semester at the gcw and leroy, a friend of the house who happened to be living at the gcw because he had gotten stabbed a few weeks prior and was staying there to recover.
we were on the topic of churches, and leroy was telling us a story about a church that happened to be right down the street from where we were sitting. he was telling us how he’d been going to the church for a few weeks and come to the realization that he really liked it there. he started talking to someone about joining the church and they excitedly put him into a membership class… which he almost completed.
the last class had been taught and the service at which the new class was to be welcomed into the local church body was coming up soon. leroy was all ready to go when they asked him if he had a suit. he was unaware if they knew that he was homeless so he politely informed them. they said that they were aware, but that a suit should only cost 40 or 50 dollars and he should be able to manage that. he once again told them that he was a homeless man and had no way of purchasing or getting access to a suit. what happened next floored me.
they told him that he would not be allowed to join the church without a suit.
has church today become so much about outward appearances that even the homeless are rejected?
kingdom of earth – one; kingdom of God – zero.