When the wackos come picketing

Yes, the wackos came picketing our awesome church recently. It was rather amusing, too be completely honest.  For the sake of safety, privacy, and to not give them any more fuel to their quest for a fame flame, I'll refrain from giving any names.  Their message of controversy and hate came and went.  Our church took it all in stride ad used it as an opportunity to show grace, love, peace,and even a sense of humor. We had a huge crowd in church that day.  A huge crowd to hear the gospel message of Jesus, and huge crowd to see our fun-loving and people-loving church in action. Oh, man I wish I could share a picture that was taken of our pastor standing outside with one of the picket signs in the background that says "your pastor is a whore." Not really sure what that was all about.  It seems they felt that way because we have a female children's pastor and we offer divorce care for families. Whatever!

 Below are some of the words that our very succinct and wise pastor wrote in response...  (fyi, the ___ is where our church's name was, and the W is where the picketers name was).

It seems to me, the biggest different between _____ and W is in how we read Romans 2:4: "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?"

At _______ we believe that when it comes to repentance, kindness is always more effective than name-calling.

I can see what they are doing. I even understand it. They want their tactics and message to be so shocking, so offensive that it will rouse people from their sin-induced trance and cause them to fall to their knees in broken repentance.

But W has forgotten that offensive signs with repulsive messages will never be as outrageous or as shocking as God's patient, persistent offer of unexpected, undeserved grace. Here is the difference between _______ Church and W.

W says, "God hates you." _________ says, "God loves you."
W says, "God rejects you." ________says, "God is wooing you."
W says, "God despises you." ________ says, "God died for you."

I leave you with this picture.  Hudson wrote out this precious and simple theological truth on the back of a worksheet at school  It says "I love God and Jesus, You are good and even if I don't see you, I love you"   The wisdom of a 6yr old