Let every church be a saving station

I am mulling over a memory of a visit with my daughter Sharon to a crowded city church. People were sitting everywhere – on pews, floors, steps, and in stained-glass windowsills.

The poor and disenfranchised were there. The dysfunctional were there. The poorly dressed and finely dressed were there. The affluent and impoverished were there.

Professionals and working-class folk. The successful and the marginalized. Men, women, boys, girls, teen-agers and old people. The married, the single, the gay, the moms, the dads, and the families – they were all present.

Yes, even drug addicts and recovering alcoholics were there. People from the middle, upper and lower classes – and people with no class whatsoever were there. Evangelicals, conservatives and liberals. Pagans. New Christians and recovering Christians. They were all there together in a United Methodist Church.

And here is the zinger: God was there. God was magnificently there! I felt and knew it as the congregation began to sing the words projected on a huge screen:

ÒThere is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.Ó

Tears were streaming down the cheeks of crusty old men, sophisticated young women, troubled old women and yearning young men. These persons acknowledged their neediness – they recognized their souls were sick and needed healing. God was able to help them as they simply hung their helpless souls onto GodÕs mercy.

Well, I wept tears of joy as we sang the refrain again:

ÒYes, there is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.Ó

I believe those words at the core of my being. ItÕs why I want us to swing open the doors of our churches every Sunday so the lost and hurting, the messed-up and stressed-out, the sinful and guilty, and the wounded and empty can come and discover grace, forgiveness, healing and transformation.

I fervently pray that every church is offering this balm: this spiritual medication to the lonely and needy. I pray that every worship service is gracefilled. I pray that every sanctuary is truly a Òsaving stationÓ and Òhealing place.Ó I pray God will spare us the immorality of offering anything less than that in our worship services.

Oh, how I pray for this. Let it be so Lord, let it be so!

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