Come Unto Me, All Ye . . . .

We had a new visitor in church last night. A homeless woman with a backpack and a bag of "stuff," and a dog. The dog barked at somebody when everyone was coming in before the service, so she left for a few minutes and came back. The lady sat down in the entryway at the very back of the sanctuary, and her dog lay at her side, silent and almost totally still.

One of the women from our congregation left her husband and family, and went to sit next to her to keep her company and help her find Bible verses as the Pastor called them out.

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Our temporary church meeting place is not exactly in the best part of town so we sometimes get homeless people in the services. Sometimes they come looking for money, but church policy is to help certain charitable organizations or members in good standing, only. The last one of those had to "move her car" and she was never seen again.

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We have a new regular visitor to the church. She's a homeless woman with a (possibly stolen) shopping cart full of "stuff." She parks her cart in the back and sits near it. One of my ushers felt bad that he had forgotten her name (again). I told him, "Just blame yourself and go ask her again." After church, I saw his car stopped on the side of the road on the way out, and he was conversing with her.

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Once, the aforementioned woman brought one of her homeless friends in a wheelchair.
A couple of times, we had an ugly, very smelly cross-dressing junkie come and sit through the services. You know what the people said to (him)her? Hi! Welcome to Trinity!

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They're not always clean
They don't all smell very nice
But they all need Jesus just like the rest of us.
As long as someone wears clothes they wouldn't get arrested for, and keep peace during the services, pretty much anyone is welcome at Trinity.

The question for you to ask yourself is, "do the people at my church value appearances more than the souls of our visitors?"