Is This Right?

My Sunday school class ran a little beyond the normal class time. I went upstairs as fast as I could to gather the kids, but Josh had beaten me to the punch. They were all waiting for me at the main entrance and they were holding flyers somebody had given them while they waited for me.

The flyers are from people beginning a new church in Gaylord. They meet in the new pastor's home right now. I looked up the church on their website, and I noted that they don't have a statement of faith as of yet. The only thing they can say thus far is that they "don't have a dress code...come as you are."

Here's what's bugging me.

Is it right to go to other churches to solicit attendees for your church? And what about the statement of faith?Personally, if you can't give me a good reason to go to your church other than I can wear whatever I want to, I won't darken your doorstep. I have a clear idea of what I believe and I'm not really interested in attending a place of worship if I can't be certain we're worshipping the same God.

And I've had doctrine struggles in recent years. I used to think that church doctrine wasn't really too important as long as we all believe we are saved by faith in Christ. Now it's really important to me that I attend a church that believes doctrinally as I do, or at least comes close.

That doesn't mean that I feel I have it all together and that nobody else is really a Christian. I don't think that way at all, so please don't accuse me of arrogance or self-righteousness. It just means that my conscience is compromised when I go against what I believe is right.

Back to my original thought. Is it right to steal folks from one Bible believing church to bring them into your own little fold? I think it's wrong. Go all over Gaylord on a Sunday morning and you'll find all sorts of people mowing lawn or what have you. There are lots of unchurched people who need to be reached right in your own community. Those are the people you need to pass out flyers to, not the ones who already attend somewhere else. And if you run out of people in Gaylord, come on over to Vanderbilt. This town is desperate for someone to show them a light.