The Poor Are Welcome Wherever We Worship (April 2, 2006)

Church must be free.

The English word "free" is ambiguous. I do not mean that the church must be liberated - I mean it should not cost anything. Gratis is the word in Spanish. Church must be gratis. Not so that anyone should be relieved of his duty to tithe and give generously, but so that the poorest of the poor will always be welcome to anything that the church, as church, does.

I can trace two sources of my conviction. One is my mother, who grew up in Chicago in the Depression as the daughter of a mostly unemployed alcoholic. She told me how pleased she was as a teenager to go to Moody Church and see at the entrance a plaque that read, "Ever welcome to this house of God are the stranger and the poor." She was welcome! You did not need a penny in your pocket to walk through the great wooden doors of Moody Church.

But you do need some pennies now, hundreds of them, to go to Moody's "Friday Night Sing." Before Mom passed away in 2001, she told me that she felt Moody betrayed its long-standing commitment to the poor when it started selling tickets to things that took place in the sanctuary.

The other source of my conviction is 1st Corinthians 11. The Apostle Paul was outraged at the way the Corinthian church was abusing Holy Communion. "It is not the Lord's Supper you eat," he said (v. 20). At issue was the fact that the rich had made it their private party - some were even getting drunk while the poor were shut out with nothing (vs. 21-22). Paul insisted that they reform their practice and celebrate the Supper worthily by doing it together and waiting for one another (v.33).

I don't think today that we violate the principle of egalitarian worship at the Lord's Supper. But we do violate it elsewhere. I believe the spirit of 1 Corinthians 11 is violated whenever we set up structures whereby poor Christians are denied worship opportunities that the rich can participate in.

That is why I will never authorize the selling of tickets to a church-sanctuary event. (We will either fund it some other way or we won't do it.) That is why, at my former church, when some wanted to assemble a group to attend a mega-church Christmas pageant replete with real donkeys ($5 tickets, $15 for good seats), I let others announce and organize it, but did not participate myself. That is why,
whenever Chuck Swindoll or David Jeremiah or Tony Evans announce another ocean cruise that features their Bible teaching, I turn off the radio or switch to the Catholic station. Cruises are fine. Jesus cruises are not. The poor can't participate.

Please understand, I have no problem with the rich being able to afford things that poor people can't. That is life. I favor right-wing capitalism, am at peace with the fact that the rich can get better health care and education, and believe that compulsory redistribution of wealth is a great evil. But in the church all worldly economic advantages and privileges have no place. As a pastor I guard against even their most subtle intrusions. As spiritual groundskeeper I try to keep things as level as I can at the foot of the cross.