Introducing a story today from my church I attend for the Wednesday Bible Studies.
The story is from an elderly Guyanan lady who attends (I'll call her J)- she is an amazing example of Christian love- when she sees me and my wife she always gives us a hug and a kiss as if we were her own grandchildren.
The story- she was on a train here in the UK when there was a young drug addict who started kicking off and threatening to hit people.
Somehow, probably due to her own very hard life, J sits the woman down and calms her down.
J then gives the lady a talk on the Gospel and the lady starts discussing her numerous family issues with J, J then proceeds to pray with the woman for her family and life.
So I don't expect the lady woke up expecting to meet J- kick off and then get a Gospel presentation and prayers from a lovely elderly Guyanan Christian lady!
Now you can see why our pastor always gets J to do the concluding prayers after the sermons on Wednesdays and Sundays!
The story might well be made up too - a modern parable. Your Guyanan friend would not get far with me. She may be a very persuasive charmer but if I decide to become religious I would want to go to it, not it to drag me in.
(I have a mildly Anglican background and would return to that, via our parish church. It's been there for nearly 800 years, Church of Rome until the Dissolution and creation of the C of E, so must be doing something right.)
@BritishFailedAesthetic I am sure my church does preach the faith rather than try to uohold obsolete social norms; just as with the Catholic and Non-comformist ones around here.
Obviously they all try to attract more congregants but they want sincere ones, not fashion-victims.
@ArishMell Yes. And by Gospel I mean the fact that we are all sinners but Christ (God the Son) shed his blood on the cross for us and had the entirety of God's wrath, rightfully meant for us, poured out on him and by believing on this we can avoid eternal damnation which we rightfully deserve and instead receive an eternity in heaven.
@BritishFailedAesthetic Oh, I'd not want to live under a continual cloud of unspecified accusations! People "sinning" (acting against others) is one thing but if Christianty assumes we are all "sinners" by default, I want none of that.
