A Note From Rob ...
Week of September 20, 2009
Not too long ago I heard of a church that made some decisions to exclude children. It seems that funds
were limited and since the children were not “paying or voting members” they were not a priority to those who
“paid the bills.” So the story goes, no one was anti-children and when there was a need it would be met.
However, through the years the need just never came. Neither did the children. Well-meaning adults
whose children once ran with glee down the halls and heard the stories of Jesus did not decide to exclude the new
generations of children, it just seemed to happen.
Now mind you, no one overtly did this-some children were sub-consciously not as welcomed as others.
The pastor called it “the mirror test” that was quietly administered. It works like this, when a church member
looked in the mirror a person who looked like them looked back. Only those who looked like the mirror image of
them were really welcomed.
The pastor looked at the Gospel of Jesus and the early church tradition and thought another “admission
test” might be in order. He called it the “window test.” When church members looked out the windows of the
church, the windows of their community and the windows of insight from the Gospel, who was seen? The
children, who were seen from that perspective, were welcomed.
Obviously, it was a new way of looking. Not all thought it was the right way. The “mirror test” was good
enough for them.
Then the pastor read a story from the Gospel. “Then he took a little child and put it among them; and
taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever
welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Then the pastor asked, “If that is true, is the opposite also true?"
I don’t know the story ends for the church. What do you think? Do you think they adopted the window
test instead of the mirror test? Many churches do not but some do. What did they do? Or perhaps better asked;
“Did the individual members trade in their mirrors for windows?”
I hope to see you Sunday. May the windows of our hearts and sanctuary be open Windex will be
provided.
RETURN
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