My Church doesn't mind your junk!

My church is different…mostly in the fact that it doesn't mind that you have junk!


My church is different from most churches…and that’s makes most people automatically suspicious, and some people even angry! Some people have already stopped reading this, because they have pre-conceived notions about my church. I know, because I used to be one of those people!

But what I wonder is why we, as people, are automatically so untrusting of things that are different? Jesus was definitely “different” during his time. He spoke things that went against what some of the spiritual leaders were teaching, he did things that went against tradition, and he performed and taught using unconventional methods. Those differences, well, they scared most “spiritual” people around Jesus.

My church is Grace Community Church. Now see, immediately, some people think, “Oh, it’s one of those non-denominational churches”, because of the name. But it’s not. I say, giving your denominational affiliation within the name of your church is a traditional practice…and again, not necessarily one that Jesus himself used, nor instigated. When he came, preaching the name of his Father and salvation, he did not align himself with a particular group of people. He was what he was, and he allowed his actions to speak louder than words, or a title. I believe that one of the reasons for this was because people outside of the Jewish faith (Gentiles, Samaritans, Ethiopians and even Romans and many others) already had opinions of the Jewish spiritual rulers and Pharisees of the day, and it was not an overall positive one. I believe that today, it is the same way. The very people that we, as Christ-followers, should be trying our hardest to reach are immediately turned off by the self-capitulating titles that we give ourselves. If you were to ask most “non-Christian” people to come to your church and you told them you go to such-and-such Baptist church, or this-and-that Methodist church (you get the point!) I guarantee that a picture of what your church is automatically pops into their head. You should try it yourself…and be honest now! I’ll say a denomination and you focus on the first picture you get in your mind!

1. Independent Baptist

2. Southern Baptist

3. Methodist

4. Pentecostal

5. Catholic

6. Church of Christ

Now, did you, or did you not, think of a specific “cookie-cutter” mold of each of those churches and what the people inside them looked and acted like? In Jesus’ time, I think the same was true. A Gentile would look at Jew and think, they would never accept me, I don’t look like them, I don’t act them, I don’t know all the spiritual things that they know, and they would walk away, intimidated and unchanged. Jesus used radical methods to reach outcasts of society, but we’re afraid to use radical methods today. If we break outside of our traditional mold, well, it’s just not done. Too many churches that I know of state that they have an open door policy and that they love people and want to reach the world for Christ. However when someone walks through their door on Sunday and isn’t dressed “right”, or has too many tattoos or piercings, or is blatantly living in sin, the churches first priority is to change that person, with a focus more on the outward than the inward. It makes us uncomfortable to have someone “different” in our midst. Again, why is that?

And that is where my church is different. We don’t go around broadcasting who we are; we say we are the church, come check out who we are and what we are about. And what we are about is following God’s Word, following Jesus’ examples, and seeing others give their life over to do the same. Doctrinally, Grace is a like a Baptist church, but people-wise it is like no church I have ever been to before! Someone once asked me, didn’t I think that would keep “Baptistic” people from coming to the church because they wouldn’t know it held to Baptist doctrine. My reply was, well maybe, but we’re more concerned about reaching the lost sheep than the ones who already know Who they belong to! Either we can give ourselves a “spiritual header” and scare away the ones who don’t feel like they fit under it, or we can walk into town simple and humble like Jesus did, and draw the curious to us because they DON’T already have those preconceived ideas. Think about it, if Jesus had carried a sign around that said “I’m teaching you things that the Chief Priests and Pharisees have been teaching you of”…how many thousands do you think would have followed him then? I dare say none. I’m not saying all churches are like the “Chief Priests and Pharisees”, but I’m saying our goal should be to reach real people and to be real people ourselves. I don’t fix myself all up and wear a dress any other day, why should I be different on the one day I come to serve God? He sees me as I am every other day of the week…if you ask me, I think we should humble ourselves down, dress in “sackcloth and ashes” and take the focus off of us and put it where it belongs. Read the scripture below, it’s a prime example of what I’ve been saying.

Matthew 9


1And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.
2And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.
3And, behold, certain of the scribes (“spiritual” peeps!) said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.
4And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
5For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?
6But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.
7And he arose, and departed to his house.
8But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.
9And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.
10And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
11And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
12But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
13But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Jesus’ words right there in verse 12 say it all…”They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”

My church is different. We reach out to the sick. We are not a church that focuses on those that are “whole”. We welcome them with love, the un-hindered, compassionate love that says, like Jesus, Come as you are, come sit down at my table with me, let me teach you and minister to you, just as you are…and IF an inward transformation takes place it resonates on the outside, then great! But I don’t care about the outside, what matters is what’s different on the inside!

My church is different on the inside. I hope you’ll come one day and see that for yourself!