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Key Bible Verse: Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God (Romans 15:7).
Bonus Reading: Romans 15:5-13

I grew up in the First Baptist Church of Columbus, Georgia—one of five prominent churches downtown that well-to-do families—all white—attended. This was to be expected in the Bible belt of the fifties and sixties. The morning service in our stately sanctuary, with its magnificent organ, was televised on a local channel. The service always lasted exactly 60 minutes, with three hymns, two anthems, a sermon and an invitation.

In my first week at the University of North Carolina, I heard about Chapel Hill Bible Church. Only a few years old, it met in a small campus auditorium. Everyone dressed casually. They sang praise songs accompanied by guitars. Anyone could stand and share how God was at work in his or her life. At prayer time, anyone could pray aloud. The pastor taught from a Scripture passage, showing his outline on an overhead projector.

I developed a critical attitude toward my former church with its formality and traditionalism. But now, years later, I realize that the Bible church had its share of flaws, and that the Lord was present and active at First Baptist. After all, that's where I first began to follow Jesus.

—Bobby Gross in Faith on the Edge

A way I can benefit from a different style of worship than I'm used to is . …

In the church of God two opposite dangers are to be recognized and avoided: they are a cold heart and a hot head.

—A. W. Tozer (Illinois pastor, writer)

Adapted from: Paul Tokunaga, Faith on the Edge (InterVarsity, 1999)

For your convenience, Faith on the Edge is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore.

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, we thank Thee that we can come to Thee just as we are. But remind us that we dare not leave as we came.

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