For some reason today I found myself remembering the words of a homeless man after a church meeting he was attending with other folk who were homeless.  He said to me, “I tried to go to a church one night, but they said I was not the sort of person their church was looking for.” He was a stone the builders rejected.

I remember the fury I felt closely followed by a conviction that the sin of that church was my sin at least in measure. How often in the past have I shown favouritism to those who could bring something valuable to the church in terms of helping to build my vision? Thankfully God has healed me of the sin of the builders over the years. I delight now to find the presence of God’s Kingdom and His grace in the fellowship of those who could easily be passed over and be the objects of rejection by the world, certainly, and sadly with almost equal certainty be the objects of rejection in many churches.

Minister, Leader, Passionate Christian; there is nothing wrong with having the eye, the vision of a builder. In that you share something of Christ’s heart and vision for He told us that He too is a builder. However, if you have the heart of a builder, make sure you don’t fall into the sin of the builder too, valuing people mostly for what they can contribute to what you are building. People will eventually feel that and the building may well collapse. Anyway, if the rejected do not have a place of honour in whatever we are building, perhaps it is time to look at the plans again…

God Bless

Kenny

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