NOT WELCOME!

I ran across this joke on another website, where it was posted to people who were not of the particular Denomination. It is not intended to offend, rather to illustrate a point, which I will make afterwards.


Not Welcome!

A dog followed its owner to his Pentecostal church one Sunday, and was promptly ejected and the door firmly shut on the creature. Feeling sorry for itself it sat in the porch to wait for the service to finish. Someone patted the dog on the head and looking up the dog saw Jesus standing over it. “Don’t worry buddy”, Jesus said, “I can’t get in there either!”

Now, the "joke" is that Pentecostal Churches are not open to people (or creatures, apparently) who are different from them. To those who may have been snubbed by the Pentecostal Church at one point in time or another, the joke seem funny. To others, it may seem sad because they feel it is true. To still others, it is offensive : either because they themselves are Pentecostal, or they have friends or relatives who are.

Let's suppose for a second that the joke read "Church of Christ." Or, "Baptist," or "Episcopal." Is it funny then? Sad? True? I think the point of this particular joke was to start people laughing knowingly. Instead, it made me start thinking. Is MY Church a place where Jesus is welcome? Do we welcome those who are different than us? I remember before I used to attend Altamesa, I would hear people say "those Church of Christ people, they think they're the only ones going to Heaven." I found out that wasn't true of my Church. I can't speak for others. But I probably would have laughed at the above joke back then, had it been about the C of C. Because I didn't know. I think our goal, as Church members or leaders or whatever, should be a place where Jesus could come as "the least" and feel a warm welcome. Do you agree?