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Volume 3 · CenteredLesson 25About 23 minutes

Who Is Welcome

Who would feel unwelcome at your table?

Centered edition for believersSwitch to Honest Heretics (for skeptics)

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The center · Matthew 11:19
19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”

In this lesson

Most churches put "All are welcome" on the sign out front. Then a visitor walks in. Some find a seat and a friend. Others notice the looks at their clothes, their tattoos, their accent, their past, and they do not come back. Many churches are known less for whom they welcome than for whom they keep out.

You may belong to a warm church, and you may be one of the people who makes it warm. This lesson asks a harder question: who never makes it through the door at all? Let's look at whom Jesus ate with. You don't need anyone's permission to follow him, inside a church or outside one.

Measured against the center

A contradiction
A church known for whom it keeps out contradicts the man his critics called a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

The rest of this lesson is in Volumes 2-4 online

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