A Hospitable Church

Well, my plan for the Restoration Scriptures Symposium have changed a little. An elderly friend of mine (yes, that's relative) is going with me so I will take a different route. I called my host home and they readily agreed that she too could stay with them. Our church members are so hospitable.

That's one of the lovely things, among many, about our church. Following Hurricane Katrina, a friend of mine needed to go to Texarkana to go through her brother's personal items after he committed suicide. Because of the hurricane she could not find a motel room. I called our pastor there and she readily agreed to let my friend, a perfect stranger, stay in her home. How many people would do that for a perfect stranger. This is not an isolated incident either. I have arranged housing for other friends in stressful and unusual situations. That's just the way our church members are. Since we are so small we are all like family. I guess that is why I have never been all stressed out about the size of our church. I figure that if we try to live our beliefs, people will be drawn to us. And that may be the slow way to grow but it seems to work. We have four people who attend our church who are not members . I have not pushed membership at all. In fact, at business meetings, we set aside the rules and let them vote.

One day, when we are planning a baptism service for a child, I will invite them to join and we will see what happens then. Personally, I am in favor of letting them transfer their membership from former churches if they have already been baptized. I think it's ridiculous that we want to be seen as a part of mainstream Christianity and serve communion to all Christians yet we are still requiring their re baptism for membership. I think that's ironic.