Almost 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of America.” Sometimes we Christians want to believe that the Gospel has helped us as the Church achieve what our country has not—becoming post-racial. But, as studies attest, Sundays remain a very culturally, racially segregated day despite every church having an open door that allows anyone to walk in. Why is that? Why doesn’t the Church opening her doors automatically lead to reconciliation?

I think many churches open the door and then expect people to walk in and make themselves at home. This attempt at openness and inclusion actually leaves the responsibility on “the other”. I have always understood the Gospel as being Good News for everyone, and that our role as believers and members of the Church is to welcome strangers, newcomers, and outsiders. How can we do that if all we do is prop open the door and never consider that perhaps what is inside isn’t a welcome but more of an unspoken audition? Can the newcomer make her own way? Can he follow along with the order of service or does she already have to know how to “pass the peace” or guess which version of The Lord’s Prayer will be used? Are we merely opening the door or are we doing everything we can to extend hospitality and welcome?

Several years ago my family and I found ourselves visiting new churches. Friendly greeters with nametags and smiles stood just inside the unlocked doors. Our family of five walked in as guests knowing very little about the church on the corner.

A federal judge has rejected a request by a former pastor of a northwestern Indiana megachurch that his 12-year prison sentence for having sex with a teenager be reduced.

The Post-Tribune of Merrillville reports U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano on Tuesday also denied Jack Schaap's request for a hearing on his motions and denied him a certificate to appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Schaap was pastor of the 15,000-member First Baptist Church of Hammond for 11 years when he was fired in 2012. He pleaded guilty to bringing the girl to Illinois and Michigan for sex.

The sentence was two years more than the 10-year sentence that federal attorneys agreed to recommend in a plea deal.