So I visited Central City Community Church last week. It's a building right in the heart of Skid Row. Most of its members are former drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless and other "untouchables" of society. Some still are.
In the middle of a hymn, a man with no shirt on who was obviously high on something walks in. One of the church members proceeds to try and stop him, telling him to go back out. Not too unusual - if that happened at any other church, the ushers would do the same thing. It happened with a homeless guy at my church. Heaven forbid we should disrupt the service or distract any of the members.
However, the pastor, who was playing percussion with the worship band, leaves the stage, walks to the man, takes his hand and leads him to a seat in the congregation.
That single act said more about that church than a thousand sermons or doctrinal statements could. It was a message that the love of God knows no boundaries, and that no one is beyond His grace.
It was a church made up of and made for the broken, the poor, the outcasts, the sinners. A light in one of the darkest and poorest communities in the nation, it was one of the richest churches I've ever seen.
SM
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