![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This week's QuailMail
Aug. 14th, 2009 09:19 amMy church sends out a weekly mailing called QuailMail. In this week's, we have an essay by Rob Parsons about prodigals. (If you aren't familiar with the story of the prodigal, or lost, son, here's the Wiki explanation and here's the Bible story itself.)
I love this part of the essay:
"...I also want to challenge the church about the part we've played in "creating" prodigals. There is many a young person who has been branded a prodigal because of his hair color, the cigarettes in his pocket, or the music venues he visits. Never mind the fact that he might care for the poor, have a wonderfully forgiving nature and, in his heart, love God. We may be satisfied with an outward conformity, but God isn't.
I wonder whether the real problem the church faces with regard to its prodigals is that half of them are still in the pews, not realizing how far from the Father's house they have wandered. Perhaps one day we will discover that our bitterness, judgment toward others, and putting down church leaders in front of our children were what God actually considered offensive."
I love this part of the essay:
"...I also want to challenge the church about the part we've played in "creating" prodigals. There is many a young person who has been branded a prodigal because of his hair color, the cigarettes in his pocket, or the music venues he visits. Never mind the fact that he might care for the poor, have a wonderfully forgiving nature and, in his heart, love God. We may be satisfied with an outward conformity, but God isn't.
I wonder whether the real problem the church faces with regard to its prodigals is that half of them are still in the pews, not realizing how far from the Father's house they have wandered. Perhaps one day we will discover that our bitterness, judgment toward others, and putting down church leaders in front of our children were what God actually considered offensive."
