{"id":43759,"date":"2011-12-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worshipping-with-people-we-didnt-hand-pick\/"},"modified":"2011-12-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-26T00:00:00","slug":"worshipping-with-people-we-didnt-hand-pick","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worshipping-with-people-we-didnt-hand-pick\/","title":{"rendered":"Worshipping with People We Didn’t Hand-Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer and NPR commentator Heather King, a recovering alcoholic who has come to faith in Christ, reflected on her initial experience with the church:<\/p>\n\n

\n

My first impulse was to think, My God, I don't want to get sober<\/em> (or in the case of the church, worship) with THESE nutcases!<\/em> (or boring people, or people with different politics, taste in music, food, books, or whatever). Nothing shatters our egos like worshipping with people we did not hand-pick …. The humiliation of discovering that we are thrown in with extremely unpromising people!—people who are broken, misguided, wishy-washy, out for themselves. People who are … us.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

But we don't come to church to be with people who are like us in the way we<\/em> want them to be. We come because we have staked our souls on the fact that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the church is the best place, the only place, to be while we all struggle to figure out what that means. We come because we'd be hard pressed to say which is the bigger of the two scandals of God: that he loves us—or that he loves everyone else.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3436,3452,3480,3511,3601,3644,3692,3848,3849,3961,3982,4191,4200,4281,4450,4704,5003,5213],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-43759","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-arrogance","tax_ctp_tags-attendance","tax_ctp_tags-believers","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-cooperation","tax_ctp_tags-ego","tax_ctp_tags-egotism","tax_ctp_tags-family-ministry","tax_ctp_tags-fellowship","tax_ctp_tags-humiliation","tax_ctp_tags-hypocrites","tax_ctp_tags-involvement","tax_ctp_tags-membership","tax_ctp_tags-pride","tax_ctp_tags-small-groups","tax_ctp_tags-unity"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nWorshipping with People We Didn't Hand-Pick - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worshipping-with-people-we-didnt-hand-pick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Worshipping with People We Didn't Hand-Pick - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Writer and NPR commentator Heather King, a recovering alcoholic who has come to faith in Christ, reflected on her initial experience with the church: My first impulse was to think, My God, I don't want to get sober (or in the case of the church, worship) with THESE nutcases! 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