When We Say Come Home

 I had a conversation with someone who stopped attending a Pentecostal Church they had grown up in. They had their own reasons for leaving and have since found a church to attend. The same day I had a conversation with someone who had stopped attending and still have not really stepped foot into a church since. Both made a statement to me along the same lines.  That Pentecostals have a certain look about them. A certain lifestyle that makes them or should make them Pentecostal. They said they were happy to see some changes that have been coming that were absolutely needed and I could not agree with them more on this. Then one made a statement that made me take pause. They hoped that as they made changes, they didn't lose their identity because if and when they decided to come home, they want to know where home is to go. At first, I was like, you mean you need the address. Then I realized what they were saying. When you go home, you want to visit what is familiar. You want those things that never changed. You want the things in your life that were the foundation of where you grew up. There is nothing more saddening then when you go visit home and nothing looks the same. That need for a familiar and safe connection is gone. This blog is to the church. Yes, a part of that is the building.  With time and the way life changes, we change the way the inside of a building looks. We throw out the pews and replace them with chairs. We put up some different colored lights. These things are not necessarily bad. My prayer is that in any change you make, let it be spirit led.  As you make these adjustments, don't change so much that when one decides to come home, they don't recognize home anymore. As you do make changes, I pray you make it a safe place. That we throw some traditions based in judgment out the door. I do not mean doctrine or anything that is Biblically based.  That the unloved truly feel welcomed. That when we say, who cares what you look like, just come home, that when they walk through the doors not looking how they used to, you open your arms wide and hold them tight! Home! Let us be home for the lost. Let us be home to the hurting. Let us be Pentecostal/Apostolic in our lifestyle. Let us be Pentecostal in our praise and worship. Let us be like Jesus and meet those who hunger and thirst right where they are at. I want to be a safe haven. God help me to open my arms wide and put my traditional ways of thinking aside and do it without losing the roots of who I am. May I be a safe place. May the love of Jesus radiate through me. Less of me, more of you. Help us to be home as we should be, so we can be easily found. God is good.