Good Friday

Today was an unusual good Friday for me as I did not have to work. Our church does not have a good Friday service so I thought I would attend one at a church in the area that I have never been to before. I like to do this every once in a while as it reminds me what it is like for the people who walk into one of our church meetings for the first time. The service I went to today was a reminder of how thankful I am for our church which has been labeled by us as a guest sensitive church. What does that mean? That means we are expecting to have guests every time we open our doors (although it does not happen every time) and that some of these guests may have never walked into a church before. Because of that we want to give each person a warm welcome and let them know we are gald they have chosen to visit with us on that day. The church I visited today, based on my one and only visit, is not guest sensitive.
The service started out with two men taking turns reading the scripture about the death of Jesus Christ. After this was over they played a short video of the portrayal of the death of Jesus Christ with more scriptures shown on the screen. After this was over one of the men told about how now they were going to do something that had become a tradition over the years at their church. That was OK, but then when he said they were going to dismiss a few people at a time to go out into the hall then into another room I have to admit I starting feeling a little uncomfortable. At this point 4 of the 30 or so people that were there got up exited out the back. I could tell they were uncomfortable about this too. I thought about leaving but I was curious about what was going on. Well after about 10 minutes of waiting my turn to go, of course I was being a good Baptist and sitting in the back,I was told I could proceed to the door out the side of the church and into the hallway. Now I was a little concerned because when these people left nobody came back into the service so I assumed the service was over after this tradition was completed. I walked out into the hallway and there were several people in line waiting to go into another room. The man at the door then explained what was happening. He was going to give us a small nail with a piece of paper taped to it. Then he told us that when we went into the room we could write our name onto the piece of paper and then use one of the hammers there to drive the nail into the wooden cross. This we were told would represent how our sins were nailed to the cross when Christ died upon it some 2000 years ago. Well I put my first name of the paper and did what they told us to do, walked out the door and got into my car. As I was sitting in my car an older man nodded his head toward me to acknowledge me as a guest to their service. Sorry to say that was the only greeting I received the whole time there so then I nodded back to him started my car and drove away.
And churches wonder why people do not return to their church once they visit? I hate to make a judgement on only one visit to a church but it reminds me of the old saying... "You only have one time to make a good first impression" and this church fell very short of doing that for me. I am looking forward to our church service on Easter and I will do my best to make any new folks we might have there on Easter Sunday as welcome as I possibly can. And what is so exciting to think about is there will be many other people like me doing the same thing. Also I am comforted to know that our Pastor will make a clear presentation of the great Gospel Message that this lost and dying world needs to so dearly hear and respond to in saving faith. I hope you go to church on Sunday, and that the church you attend does the same as ours will do.

CHRIST has risen... CHRIST has risen indeed!!