Imagine you are part of a feisty neighborhood Facebook page. You know the type, where everyone has an opinion. Now imagine you got drunk on a Saturday night you were caught on video throwing up all over the neighborhood community park, let’s call it Park Square. Your face clearly seen. Your name boldly plastered.

Would you go to a church gathering in that community the following morning?

Sadly, I think many would not. The sadness is not that shame and guilt would be overwhelming. The sadness is that so many churches have implied or explicitly taught that church is a place for clean and moral people not for Park Square pukers.

Now imagine this…

Imagine you’re in this very same community and instead of being the belligerent drunk, you are walking across the road and a car carelessly misses a stop sign and crashes into you, throwing your body into violent twists so that you’ve hit your head, broken a leg, and you are left with multiple lacerations in need of stitches. Instead of going to the hospital you crawl home to lather your gashes with Neosporin, wrap your bent leg with an ace bandage, and cover your throbbing head with an ice pack. We would think that person foolish right? Go to the hospital for crying out loud. It is the good thing, the healthy thing, the wise thing to do when you’ve been hit by car and shattered.

Are you lost, broken, puking, drunk, depressed? Don’t hide from the gathering of God’s people and the proclamation of good news for people like you. Come to him who forgives. Come to him to loves. Come to him who will walk alongside you in the midst of life’s ups and downs. Can we be a church gathering like that? I sure hope so.