All Are Welcome

All Are Welcome?

I wonder why local churches still have This old chestnut displayed prominently on their notice board. I’m not knocking it too much because all are usually welcome to come along on a Sunday morning. I wonder how many churches still have “Membership Drives”? Instead of a drive to win the lost, we have a membership drive to increase numbers and income. Instead of reaching out into the town to find the lost and hurting, we simply emphasise that anyone who has a free hour or so on Sunday morning is welcome to pop in to see what today’s church is really like.

Sadly, today’s church, in very many places, is not at all unlike yesterday’s church. I know of more than one person who has gone to their local church and not a soul greeted them, no-one invited them for coffee afterwards, and actually nobody spoke to them for weeks. The only reason they stayed was because God had sent them there and He asked them to stay. I know of another who sat down and was promptly told to move because, “That is my seat and I have paid for it!”

Many churches today have a welcome team yet new-comers seem to be somewhat less than welcome as the team seem bent on welcoming friends and family rather that strangers. I find it so odd to go to a new church for the first time and being either completely ignored, or worse still, practically shunned.

Where has the love gone church? We are supposed to be recognised by His love in us. Where is the fruit? We are supposed to bear much fruit by our lives and our deeds. Where is the presence of Christ? We are supposed to be carriers of His presence at all times ad in all places – especially in His house. If the Apostles returned today, would they even recognise us as a church?