Would Jesus Be Accepted in Your Church?

Ryan and I were riding in the car the other day with the Ipod on shuffle and the song "My Jesus" by Todd Agnew came on. If you have ever listened to the lyrics, you may have been turned off by one word in the song. But take a minute with me to read through the lyrics that caught our attention.

"Cause my Jesus bled and died

He spent His time with thieves and liars

He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant

So which one do you want to be?

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church

The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet

But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud

I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd

And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus! "

Ryan and I felt God calling us back to the Upstate. We left with no house, no job for me, and no real clue where God was leading us. Real blind faith. We later found God leading us to Epic Church and a group of people who truly encompass what Ryan and I talked about following the song that day in the car. But that is another story for another day.

After carefully listening to the song, Ryan and I talked about visiting some churches when we came to Greenville. We talked about how receptive and loving some churches are and no matter what you look like and wear they just love on you. Ryan and I talked about a "test" we wanted to do one day. We wanted Ryan to find his spikes, Slipknot tshirt (that mind you has holes all in it), black pants with chains on it, and dog collar and "dress the part". We wanted to experiment to see how a church would approach my husband in this getup. Would people walk up to him and invite him back and tell him about other events and bible studies going on in the church? Would they stare at him? Judge him?

They don't know his heart. They don't know he is the most godly man I have ever met. But many churches probably wouldn't invite us to anything else their church has going on. We said the church that did was the type of church we wanted to be involved in.

How many of us, including myself, would have huge eyes watching such a sight coming down the isle of our church? How many of us truly are like Jesus. Look at who Jesus ministered to. The adulterous woman at the well. A tax collector who cheated people out of money. Sick woman who had been bleeding for 12 years.

I want to follow Christ and imitate Him. I want to show God's truth in love as Ephesians 4:15 states "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." It doesn't matter who we are, what job we have, how we dress, or what sins we have or are committing at the time. 1 Peter 4:8 states that "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." Everything else aside, we are called to share Jesus's love story, a love that covers all sins. We are to do this without fear and without shame. For Jesus ministered to people who needed Him. People who were sinners and outcasts from their society. Just as this drew criticism from the proud religious leaders of Jesus's day, we need not fear rejection and criticism from those in our day.

We are called to witness no matter what the social class, sins committed, education, wealth, employment, etc. So I ask again as the song did.

"Which Jesus do you follow?

Which Jesus do you serve?

If Ephesians says to imitate Christ

Then why do you look so much like the world?"