The Perfect Church...sort of

Today, I had a spiritual experience that I had to share with you. I visited a "church" today that was pretty close to perfect. By that I mean that it was as welcoming as I hope The Springs to be. This "church" welcomed me as I entered with all my imperfection and dirt from the past. I didn't have to get dressed up to enter and in fact, would have been frowned upon had I done so. My filth and my dirt was on display for all to see and in a weird turn of events I think it was actually a badge of honor. The ugly places I had walked were on display and those who welcomed me had a twinkle in their eye that communicated to me: that's how you are supposed to come into this place. They literally let me be who I was at that moment. I didn't have to pretend to be anything.

I want that kind of church. I want to be that kind of welcomer. I want to look at people and see the sin of their past and the marks of their mistakes and the dirt and grime of the hell-holes where people have gone and view that as badges of honor, not embarrassing parts of their past that they need to hide when they come to our church. In one of my previous churches, we would welcome people with a slide on the screen that read: Welcome to our church, where the less than perfect are more than welcome. We all know that even the "perfect" are not, so can we simply quit pretending? Can we stop dressing up our souls in Sunday clothes just to gather with other imperfect people? I'm tired of hearing stories of people feeling like they have to walk a certain way, talk a certain way, dress a certain way, etc. just to be "in." I'm tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses and I don't think I even know any Joneses. I'm just tired of that whole scene.

Now we have a chance to change all of that! We have the opportunity to be a gathering where the less than perfect are more than welcome. We have a chance to post a big fat sign on our church that reads: NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED! We can start now in our table groups with being open and honest and not having to speak a certain Christianese. We set the tone. I can't wait to see what God is going to do with all of our Springs? We are getting close. Can you taste it? Can you feel it?