AS WIDE AS GOD’S MERCY (26 OF 56)
As Wide as God’s Mercy (26 of 56)
Series: The Church in ACTSion
Wyman Richardson
Acts 11
Read Acts 11
Some years ago a friend of mine asked me to take a ride with him. He took me to an old, largely empty house in this small rural town in South Georgia. Inside the house there were a number of boxes containing books. He informed me that he wanted me to look through the books, taking whichever titles I wanted. As it turned out, my friend had been the pastor of the man who lived in this house and had become the executor of the man's estate before his passing. The man had no family to speak of and so the books were at my friend's disposal.
As I looked through the boxes I was immediately struck by the weight of the titles and subjects. Many were books on philosophy and many on theology and church history and biblical studies. Curious, I asked my friend who exactly this man had been. He explained to me that he had taught philosophy at a small liberal arts college in an adjoining town and had also spent some time as a pastor. He went on to tell me a story that struck me then and now as tragic and deeply saddening.
The man whose books I was perusing had served as the pastor of a small, rural Southern Baptist church not too far from the church I was pastoring at that time. My friend told me that in 1956 his friend had gone into the pulpit of that church and preached a message on the practical implications of the cross, one of which being that all people of all races who came to Christ were now part of one family and one Church. As such, he informed his church, no church should bar anyone entry into membership on the basis of skin color. This was, as you might imagine, a very controversial sentiment for a pastor to make in the Deep South in the 1950's.
My friend went on to inform me that after the service the pastor went to lunch and out visiting. When he returned for the evening service, all of his furniture had been moved out into the front yard and he w ...
Series: The Church in ACTSion
Wyman Richardson
Acts 11
Read Acts 11
Some years ago a friend of mine asked me to take a ride with him. He took me to an old, largely empty house in this small rural town in South Georgia. Inside the house there were a number of boxes containing books. He informed me that he wanted me to look through the books, taking whichever titles I wanted. As it turned out, my friend had been the pastor of the man who lived in this house and had become the executor of the man's estate before his passing. The man had no family to speak of and so the books were at my friend's disposal.
As I looked through the boxes I was immediately struck by the weight of the titles and subjects. Many were books on philosophy and many on theology and church history and biblical studies. Curious, I asked my friend who exactly this man had been. He explained to me that he had taught philosophy at a small liberal arts college in an adjoining town and had also spent some time as a pastor. He went on to tell me a story that struck me then and now as tragic and deeply saddening.
The man whose books I was perusing had served as the pastor of a small, rural Southern Baptist church not too far from the church I was pastoring at that time. My friend told me that in 1956 his friend had gone into the pulpit of that church and preached a message on the practical implications of the cross, one of which being that all people of all races who came to Christ were now part of one family and one Church. As such, he informed his church, no church should bar anyone entry into membership on the basis of skin color. This was, as you might imagine, a very controversial sentiment for a pastor to make in the Deep South in the 1950's.
My friend went on to inform me that after the service the pastor went to lunch and out visiting. When he returned for the evening service, all of his furniture had been moved out into the front yard and he w ...
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