Several years

ago, in picking up my laundry, I engaged the attendant in church conversation,

finally inviting her to River's Edge Community Church. She responded,

"I am a Moslem." To which, I responded, "We love Moslems

at our church." And, to tell the truth on a stack of Bibles, there

is no greater truth that just that: we love Moslems at River's Edge.

So, I hope

this Sunday a whole bunch of Moslems will show up at the church. Realistically,

probably not. But, if they did, they would be loved. Not because they

call Mohammed their prophet, in fact a superior prophet to Jesus Christ

(they believe). And not because they probably pray more obediently than

we do, in fact seven times day. But we will love them because that's our

supernatural nature. There's someone in every born-again Christian who

just can't help loving any and all of God's creation.

Two Sundays

ago, I told my congregation that the real test of our love for "different"

folks will come when two gay men walk hand in hand into our midst, sit

down, and seek to worship. Now, I believe that River's Edge would love

those two men as if they were a husband, wife and two kids. Does God make

a distinction between his love for folks of varying lifestyles? Certainly

not.

Here's where

my fundamentalist brethren start convulsing. They have just interpreted

my remarks as endorsing homosexuality as a valid, Christian lifestyle.

Not so. But I will say this: I would rather have a church full of homosexuals

who seek to get their lives straight with God and are experiencing victory

after victory than a church house full of hypocrites who are most effective

in hiding their sins on Sundays and live like the devil the rest of the

week.

Too often the

church has got the reputation as the House of Judgment. Rightly deserved.

We act like hillbilly country clubs, deciding who will be allowed into

the inner sanctum based on their pedigree, degrees, and dollars. I know.

There are churches right here in "river" city who permit their

hired shepherds to rub elbows with club rejects, but never allow them

into their homes, much less their chummy gatherings like tailgate parties.

No. Jesus'

house was not a house of prudes, prim and propers. It was a House of Love.

The town prostitute was welcome to bring her tithes made from her trade

and pour them out at the front of the church at the feet of Jesus. The

hated, ostracized tax collector even was paid a home visit by Pastor Jesus

with the crowding following.

Hardly a church

in metro Atlanta has not prayed for revival. We even conduct weeks of

revival services, hoping that God will do for us what he won't do. He

says that his church needs to humble herself, pray, seek his face, and

turn from our wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14). Here again, the mistake

of the church is to hire a humble pastor. "He's so humble."

Revival waits on humility in the pews along with humility in the pulpit.

The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher is pastor

of River's Edge

Community Church in Fayetteville.

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