IF The Church Was a hospital...
A hospital is a place
___for
recreation
___for buying a house
x__to get well.
A hospital is there for the benefit of
___the
doctors,
___the
nurses
x__the
patient
The most important function of a hospital is
___the
parking lot
___back rubs from the janitor
x__patient care
The best time to take someone to the hospital is
___when
your neighbor’s house is for sale
___when your cousin’s car has a
flat tire
x__when they are sick
If someone gets run over by a car, the best way to help
them is to
___tell
them how bloody they look
___tell everyone else how badly
they are hurt
x__take them to
the hospital
If the church was a hospital, who would most likely
represent
the hospital?
___the
patient
___the ushers
x__the unsaved
The word hospitality comes from the same word from which
we get hospital. A hospital is obviously a place to get well as marked), and it
is for the benefit of the patient. Patient care is a hospital function and the
time to get them to the hospital is when sick. They find healing not by hearing
how bloody they look or hearing how sick they are but by getting them into
hospital care, even emergency care.
Now if the church really was a hospital, there are some
things that might be happening, according to the Scriptures: For example: consider
thoughtful words from the two most
obvious leaders of the 1st century church, Paul and Peter: Romans 12:10-13 (NCV):
“Love
each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want
for yourselves.
“Do
not be lazy but work hard, serving the Lord with all your heart.
“Be
joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all times.
“Share
with God’s people who need help. Bring strangers into your homes. . .” and
I Peter 4:7-10
(NCV):
“The
time is near when all things will end. So think clearly and control yourselves
so you will be able
to pray.
“Most
importantly, love each other deeply, because love will cause many sins to be
forgiven.
“Open
your homes to each other, without complaining. Each of you has received a gift
to use to serve
others. Be good servants of God’s various gifts of grace.”
When a church is truly functioning as a church, it will become
a place where love drives the (church) family to relate through various actions
of hospitality. Church members will become channels of grace (grace dispensers
of God’s healing grace), and the church will begin ministering more seriously to
the sick and suffering of body, soul, and mind,be they in the hospital, at
church, at home, or in jail.
Instead of disregarding its healing role, the church will
attempt to stay pure not by shooting its fallen and wounded comrades but by
launching efforts to restore the fallen while also reaching out to the
unreached.
Carl Stagner wrote a wonderful piece in the ChogNews of
11-25-15 describing a fallen California pastor being reconciled with the church
where he fell. I know other places where
this story needs to be repeated, where estranged individuals need to be
reconciled, where broken and fallen and failed people need healing … if only
the church would obediently become the hands and feet of our Lord Jesus Christ,
whose Ambassadors God has called us to be.
Paul described his conversion as a time when he no longer
viewed other people as the world views them. Instead, he began to view them as
God looks at them (sees them) cf 2 Cor. 5:16-21.
Thanks Pastor Paul for the wonderful challenge Sunday using the six
questions at the beginning. You certainly challenged me to re-visit this critical question
from a different perspective ...
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
in Warner’s World,
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