churches of one race
I am still looking for a new church home here in Nacogdoches, TX and this morning I visited a small church of Christ that happened to be an all black congregation. I was not aware of that until after I arrived for class. But I decided to attend anyway and see how I liked it. I had never been a part of an all black worship service and was interested in what it would be like.
I was amazed at how welcome everyone there made me feel. Everyone was introducing themselves to me and thanking me for visiting. In fact, I was the only male there in Bible class at first...the men who were to teach the class were running late. The ladies asked me to lead them in a song. I asked them to choose the song and they picked one. After I led the song, they asked if I would lead them in a prayer, so I did.
By the time I finished the prayer, the men showed up and led one more song and started the Bible Study. The study was really good and many members had good comments to add to the study. I also made comments and they were pleased with my willingness to participate and liked my comments.
Before the worship service started, more people showed up. In total, I think there was about fifty people there. I was asked to go into a room with all the men that were going to help with the worship service and I did. When I got back there, they asked if I would like to lead the first prayer after two hymns and a scripture reading. I was happy to help. The majority of the songs were hymns I knew, but they put a spiritual touch to all the hymns....I really liked it and nothing was too extravagant and no one drew attention to themselves.
The man who preached had just placed his membership last week and apparently was a former preacher. He filled in for the regular preacher who was a guest speaker at another church out of town. The sermon was really great and the message was true to God's Word. I really appreciated the message. When service was over, everyone again wanted to thank me for visiting and for helping where needed. They encouraged me to come back any time.
I have visited many congregations throughout the years and can honestly say that I have never felt more welcome as a visitor than I did at this small, African American church. If all local churches were as good at making visitors feel welcome, they would grow by leaps and bounds. I learned a lesson myself about how I should meet and greet visitors.
Now this experience really got me thinking though. Segregation is not enforced by the governments anymore and yet, we have local churches that are either all white, all black, or all hispanic. This should not be. Now I know that it is just human nature to gravitate toward those who are like us. We feel more comfortable when we are around people that look, talk, and act similar to us. But we are all Christians and should not separate based on race. I am not sure if it is possible to get people together and mixed racially, but I long for that. One great thing about Heaven is that we will all be the same...we'll have spiritual bodies and there will be no race, culture, or language difference anymore. I have been a part of some congregations that were well balanced with different races...even asian. Those churches were much better to me because we all really were a family in spite of our differences. I pray that people will work toward mixing up better and not separating based on the color of our skin, culture, and language.
I was amazed at how welcome everyone there made me feel. Everyone was introducing themselves to me and thanking me for visiting. In fact, I was the only male there in Bible class at first...the men who were to teach the class were running late. The ladies asked me to lead them in a song. I asked them to choose the song and they picked one. After I led the song, they asked if I would lead them in a prayer, so I did.
By the time I finished the prayer, the men showed up and led one more song and started the Bible Study. The study was really good and many members had good comments to add to the study. I also made comments and they were pleased with my willingness to participate and liked my comments.
Before the worship service started, more people showed up. In total, I think there was about fifty people there. I was asked to go into a room with all the men that were going to help with the worship service and I did. When I got back there, they asked if I would like to lead the first prayer after two hymns and a scripture reading. I was happy to help. The majority of the songs were hymns I knew, but they put a spiritual touch to all the hymns....I really liked it and nothing was too extravagant and no one drew attention to themselves.
The man who preached had just placed his membership last week and apparently was a former preacher. He filled in for the regular preacher who was a guest speaker at another church out of town. The sermon was really great and the message was true to God's Word. I really appreciated the message. When service was over, everyone again wanted to thank me for visiting and for helping where needed. They encouraged me to come back any time.
I have visited many congregations throughout the years and can honestly say that I have never felt more welcome as a visitor than I did at this small, African American church. If all local churches were as good at making visitors feel welcome, they would grow by leaps and bounds. I learned a lesson myself about how I should meet and greet visitors.
Now this experience really got me thinking though. Segregation is not enforced by the governments anymore and yet, we have local churches that are either all white, all black, or all hispanic. This should not be. Now I know that it is just human nature to gravitate toward those who are like us. We feel more comfortable when we are around people that look, talk, and act similar to us. But we are all Christians and should not separate based on race. I am not sure if it is possible to get people together and mixed racially, but I long for that. One great thing about Heaven is that we will all be the same...we'll have spiritual bodies and there will be no race, culture, or language difference anymore. I have been a part of some congregations that were well balanced with different races...even asian. Those churches were much better to me because we all really were a family in spite of our differences. I pray that people will work toward mixing up better and not separating based on the color of our skin, culture, and language.
posted by Unknown at 11:18 PM
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