Several years ago, a coworker of mine said she wanted to go to church for Mother’s Day. So I invited her to mine.
That Sunday morning I met her at the door, we shuffled in with the rest of the parishioners, and found a seat comfortably in the middle of the sanctuary. We stood, we sang, we sat, we listened. Everything was going along perfectly until her cell phone rang.
Right in the middle of the sermon.
And if that weren’t bad enough, she was so caught off guard that as she grabbed for her purse to silence the noise, she released a four-letter expletive.
Again, right in the middle of the sermon.
This memory came to mind recently and it made me smile. Not just because it’s funny, but because I realized that we should expect more of that in church. Each and every one of us is a mess, and if we’re inviting the people who need Jesus (which, of course, includes each of us who already attend) we shouldn’t be caught off guard when things go awry. When mistakes are made. When a faux pas happens.
So are we really ready for this? Are we ready to accept messy people into our congregations, without the expectation that they “fake it” through Sunday morning like the rest of us are so accustomed to doing? And are we ready to take off our own masks and show the people that walk through the front door that we’re all exactly the same?
I’m not advocating that we start swearing in the middle of church. But I am saying that if it happens, we shouldn’t be so surprised.
We should be ready.
Read more from Kristina at our online blogging site AllMomDoes.com