Let’s try that again …

We love a second chance!

When we’re behind, we love a second chance to rally back.

When we’ve made a mistake, we love a second chance to get things right.

When we’ve blundered, we love a second chance to correct things.

When we have been caught in the wrong, we love a second chance and the mercy that comes with it.

When we’ve sinned, we love a second chance and the grace that restores us.

But as much as we seem to love second chances, we often aren’t very wise or assertive about seeking opportunity from some of them. Especially as a church, when we have failed to be the church to people who came in the front door and very quickly left through the back door.

Time and again I’ve observed how people come into the midst of congregations but soon leave. Not because they didn’t sense they would like to become a part of God’s family there, but because they weren’t embraced personally.

Sure, someone said hello and handed them a bulletin. Someone else may have stepped up and shaken hands. Invitations to attend this or that may have been extended and actually responded to. Functionally, there were some interactions.

But not personally.

Th family wasn’t invited into a home. A personal time over coffee wasn’t offered. Nothing of a “outside-of-church” nature was ever offered.

And so the person, or couple, or family moved on, looking for someone and some place that would not just receive them, but love them.

Someone posted recently this statement: “Funny how someone you once loved can become someone you once knew.” Funny how so many become someone we once knew because we didn’t really love them.

What I have found to be bothersome is how some churches look at the people who have passed through their midst in such a manner, shake their head and wander why, then forget the people. They overlook any opportunity to pursue a second chance to revisit those people, seeking for a new chance to embrace them and love them.

To get personal.

We give a great deal of lip service to “loving people to the Lord,” but when we actually have the opportunity, we often let people “fall through the cracks.”

Has your church had people come and go lately? Could you possibly reach and serve some of those people if you sought a second chance, not to receive them organizationally, but to get to know and love them personally?

Scotty