Happy 100th Birthday! Wearing the Right Clothes?
After all the years I've spent in ministry I've never been invited to a 100th birthday party. However all that will change today as I hope to attend the birthay of Mary Keel who is our oldest member of the congregation. Mary is a wonderful Christian lady. When she left school she went to work in the Bo'ness hosiery, she worked there for many years, then she started working in the local newsagents as a shop assistant.It was there that she met her husband. I believe he was going in and out of the shop buying a newspaper and looking for an excuse to invite Mary out on a date.
Mary tells me she has attended St Andrew's for most of her life. She has been a Sunday School Teacher and a member of the Choir. She misses many of her friends who ae no longer with us, however she always has a genuine interest in the work of teh church and is someone who realises that changes have had to take place. While she may not like all of the changes. She believes that some were essential.
Her father was invited to be an elder, but because he didn't have a morning suit. He turned the offer down. All this got me thinking. Many people complain that the church is not what it once was. In some respects I'm glad. When I think of a church that excluded people from the eldership because of their clothes, I think of a church that had missed the point of the gospel. Lest we as church leaders a hundred years on get on our high horse, perhaps we need to think of the attitudes we have that are preventing and creating barriers to faith in Christ. It might be of interest I just heard the other day of someone who went into a church only to over hear someone comment on their clothes. Nothing changes! Even James in his epistle wrote about attitudes to clothes and riches.
Anyway its happy birthaday to Mary
Posted By: Martina Berg On: 30 May 2010 At: 9:27am
Incredibly awesome post. Truely..