'Lord, send us more Hooters opportunities!'

'Lord,

send us more Hooters opportunities!'

I am a pastor of a

church here in Fayetteville, and recently I have been

awakened to an attitude of many churches and Christians

that alarms me. This attitude that these people have

seems to be one of creating or preserving some kind of

Christian utopia, where we stand up for God and keep the

sinners out. We petition at homosexual rallies and

abortion clinics and tell lies about our God.

Now I'm

against homosexuality and abortion, but I am also against

lying on God and misrepresenting Him to a world that

dearly needs Him. If some of these protesters would read

through the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), they

would find out that God doesn't hate fags and that He

loves the little girl who is considering to abort her

baby.

What

homosexuals, abortionists and Hooters girls need to see

is a church which models the love and acceptance of a

heavenly Father. They need to see us reaching out to them

to help bring them out of their sin, not keeping them out

of our city.

I'm amazed

at how far the church has moved away from its mission and

purpose for being here on earth. If Jesus Himself were to

visit Fayetteville, I am afraid that many so-called

religious leaders of our town would not recognize Him and

classify Him as a worldly person who likes to hang around

places like Hooters. He would be eating with the

"publicans" of our day, and allowing Hooters

girls to wash his feet with their tears.

Oh, I can

see the religious, pharisaic attitudes that would smirk

and frown on His love and acceptance of Hooters girls, as

He continued to get each one set free from their sin.

The sinners

of Jesus' day loved to be around Him because they finally

found someone who was godly who would love them, show

them acceptance, and at the same time tell them the truth

that could free them from their sin.

Not so with

the Pharisees or the religious people of Jesus' day. They

told the sinners that we will accept you if you become

like us and "do" all that we do. If you want to

move into our town, you must become as we are, because

God only likes people who act like we do.

Not! What a

misrepresentation of God Almighty! Attitudes like this

have crept in to the church slowly as the church has

become less and less evangelical. Have we forgotten our

purpose and the great commission of the Lord Jesus Christ

himself?

If I

remember right, we are to go into all "the

world" and preach the good news to everyone, not

turn the earth into a Christian utopia, or forbid sinners

to come around us!

If we had

the same heart as God, we would pray for more places like

Hooters and use it as a bait for sinners to come to. We

wouldn't be picketing to try and stop them from coming,

we would be waiting outside Hooters to tell them the good

news. Oh, what the heck, don't wait outside, go in and

get them.

Wake up,

pastors and Christians! What is the purpose behind our

actions of preserving our city? Stopping a risqu�

restaurant won't stop sin. Only the preaching of the

Gospel can save a sinner from it (Romans 10.13-15).

Shouldn't

we be consumed with reaching the lost? Our children see

more nudity on a TV beer commercial, or even at our

country club swimming pools than they do at Hooters.

Let's not

unify around a useless cause of driving the sinners away

from our city. Let's drive the pharisaic money changers

of our day, who are misrepresenting God, out of the

temple, and let's go to the dwelling places of the

sinners, befriend them, and deliver them from their sin

like Jesus did.

If all the

churches in our community would unify around the cause of

reaching the lost, places like Hooters would close from a

lack of customers. My prayer in the Fayetteville Hooters

dilemma is this: "Lord, send my church as many

homosexuals, abortionists and Hooters girls as possible.

They desperately need an encounter with your love, mercy

and forgiveness."

The Rev.

Dayne Massey

Word of

Life Family Church

Fayetteville