No Perfect People Allowed

Yesterday in church we discussed the fact that 'sin is sin.' Since I've been a Christian since I was a little runt, this is sometimes tough for me to grasp. It seems a lot easier to grasp levels of sins rather than receiving complete forgiveness for our sins, no matter what they are. If I could imagine myself in the story in John 7, I am slow to drop my stone. I may not throw it, but I tend to like to hold onto it just in case it is needed. But if we're going to reach our community for Jesus, we've got to be willing to drop our stones and make ourselves a little bit uncomfortable.

One of the books that I highly recommend in order to create this type of church is John Burke's "No Perfect People Allowed." Burke leads a church in Austin, TX that reaches people that we have often thought to be unreachable. In his book he deals with many of the issues that we are dealing with during our "Inside-Out Issues" series. I'd encourage you to take a look at it. If you don't have a chance to look at it, just think about it for a while. No perfect people allowed. How refreshing! I don't have to be perfect or even look flawless on Sunday morning. God loves me unconditionally, and as his people, we should love unconditionally as well.