The Church and Costco are different.
Membership in the church is different than membership in a big box store. In the latter, membership is a ticket for admission; it is required to get in! That’s NOT how it is in the Church.
In the church, you don’t have to be a member to come in, to check it out and leave, to attend if you choose, to belong if you want, to participate where you desire. You don’t have to have experience, or know what to do. You are welcome. As you are. Period.
In the church, we function differently – not by payment, but by gift. (That’s what “grace” means). It’s a “pay it forward” kind of deal.
The love of God is a GIFT – that has been given (and is still being given!) long before we existed, became aware of it, or decided it was a good thing. A short list of examples:
- Creation of the Universe was an amazing gift, 10 billion years before our planet was formed!
- The gifts of a place to live, many children, and spiritual intimacy were plunked into Sarah and Abraham’s lap, before they had a clue who God was, or where to find
- The gifts of Jesus
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- his teachings and lifestyle;
- his cross (God’s way of saying, “Nothing can make me stop loving you!);
- his empty tomb (God’s way of saying, “There is Life beyond life!”);
- were given to
- disciples who, at first, got it all wrong,
- to leaders who were afraid of him (centurions, religious officials, governors and kings),
- and to those excluded from society's blessing at that time (tax-collectors, leather workers, street people, lepers, the disfigured, women, children, ancient enemies).
The very best of the church’s past has been people living through grace (and the worst have been people who betrayed that grace!), serving others as a gift:
- in education – John Strachan
- creating hospitals – Florence Nightingale
- caring for the poor – Mother Theresa, Harry Lehotsky
- welcoming the mentally challenged – Jean Vanier
- peacemaking – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Desmond Tutu, Karen Ridd
- promoting affordable housing – Jimmy Carter
- working for freedom – William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Membership is a response to gifts, "paid forward” for others. It is a way of saying, “Thanks! I’ve got it! I see how I’ve been blessed – and I like it! I identify with the way of Christ, and want to continue in the excitement and enrichment and meaning and healing that are this Kin.dom parade. Count me in!” In a way, membership is more like being an “owner” or “share-holder” in the cause. Interested?
