Stained Glass Masquerade
Let's talk about last week's service. And for those of you who weren't there let me describe it to you.

Our Drama and Media Team took the new Casting Crowns song - Stained Glass Masquerade and built a drama and media show to go with it. Then I spoke from Luke 7:36-50 on the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her hair and tears at a Pharisees home. If you remember she was a "sinner", which probably puts her in the camp of a whore or sexually immoral woman.

The point of it all was to illustrate how fake our churches have become. They are truly places filled with "shiny plastic people under shiny stained glass windows". In fact the place where a person may be least free to share what they have done or the sin from their past is the Church. We have built sin lists of acceptable sins from which God can save you and we will rejoice. But we also have the list of those sins that no matter how repentant a person is - we don't want them around. There is almost a sanctified rejection of some people. If you struggle or have ever struggled with homosexuality, abortion, molestation, or other serious deviations then you better keep that to yourself - most churches don't want to know and they don't want you to tell. You deal with that ALONE!

Of course the masquerade isn't confined to these sins, but really includes an attitude that has people learning an accepted practice of causing others to believe that you are better than you are -we are all "just fine" and we "live right".

The result is that the place that is to be giving us the most help, support, and medicine is the place where you can get it the least. Judgment is passed out far more than acceptance and hope.

Woodland will not be that place and many are beginning to find that to be true. So if you are reading this and are one of those who suffer wishing that you did not have to hide from your past or struggle alone in your present, then Woodland is for you. Come on home and take your mask off, but remember, the Masquerade may be a prettier place. Real Churches with real people don't even look like they have it all together.

Now blog me and let me know what you think.