Does My Behavior Inside the Church Support My Claim?

I’m excited to be posting for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church today in collaboration with a new three-week sermon series…“A New Reformation.” 

Today's post is Part Two of a two-part post. If you missed Part One, click here…Does My Behavior Outside the Church Support My Claim?

Below is the beginning of Part Two...Does My Behavior Inside the Church Support My Claim?

When we were still relatively new to our church, we arrived a little early and sat down in an empty pew. Only minutes before service began, a larger family than mine walked up to where we were sitting and looked stunned to see us there. And annoyed.

Very obviously annoyed.  

Although there were plenty of open pews in the same section, they looked at us, stammering and acting put out. I’m not dumb, and as I saw the mom was not going to let this drop, I asked her, “Do you want us to move?”

“Oh, no. No.” She sighed. “We’ll sit back here,” she said, finally moving to the pew behind us. Her family followed. We had apparently rocked their world.

Truthfully, if it had been our first visit to the church, I don’t know if we would have returned. I felt like we’d been put in the spotlight—the “you-sat-in-my-pew” spotlight. The one that makes you cringe and feel like you’re being stared at throughout the entire service.

It was hardly welcoming. Nor was it conducive to hearing God’s message in a worshipful setting.

Their reaction to us sitting in their invisibly-marked-with-their-name pew was not what I expected.

Their behavior did not support their claim of being Christians.

To continue reading…

Will you join me at Gloria Dei to read the rest of my post about our behavior inside the church? And if you would, leave a comment.

Does your behavior inside the church support your claim of being a Christian?

In Christ,

Laura 

Part One – Does My Behavior Outside the Church Support My Claim? 

Linking up with The Weekend Brew, Soli Deo Gloria, and Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday.