Our friend and prayer-partner Jill Weber stopped by to give us a final, encouraging word.
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Two Kinds of Safe
2015.05.31 - Kevin Makins - The Church Calendar
Two Kinds of Safe
Acts 7-8, 1
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Anyone have a story about a time where someone was hurt by a person who claimed to be a Christian? Where a congregation was prejudice, controlling or judgemental?
… Thought so.
In a time where SO many people have been hurt by people claiming to be Christians, it’s refreshing and encouraging to see so many communities valuing the idea of “safe church”
But there is another question worth asking: should the church be safe?
This week we also dedicated Aaron and Cath’s baby Georgia, so if you hear references to families that are joining us, or some general baby-talk, that’s why!
The text:
Acts 9:1-5
That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.
Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them.
REJECTED!
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Kevin tells us two stories of rejection.
In Luke 4, Jesus goes to church, is rejected, and nearly murdered.
In January of 2014, Kevin and Meg went to Vancouver, were rejected, and got a nice polite letter.
Two very different endings, but a similar question can be asked about both: how should we respond in a culture of rejection?
(As an aside, this was our first week in a new gathering space, so there are some veiled, and not so subtle, allusions to that fact)
(As another aside, the church planting group Kevin talks about is in no way affiliated with the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec/CBOQ, and do not reflect the values or blah blah blah of the CBOQ!)