"Since 2006, there have been several heartbreaking situations that have occurred in our church family that resulted in broken relationships, broken trust, divisions within our church family and a damaged witness in our community," Dr. Charles Fowler, the church's senior pastor, wrote to the congregation last month."How can a church proclaim the glories of the love of God to those who are lost when their reputation is such that they cannot get along with each other?" Fowler wrote last month.
"I could simply turn a blind eye to the implications of our painful past (but) that would be spiritually irresponsible. ... In December, God impressed with great conviction that the way forward was to confront the past by seeking and applying grace."
This story is all the more encouraging to me because I know the church's current pastor and the children's pastor very well. Not to mention, I know numerous people who grew up in that church and others who experienced some of the pain in their recent past.
May the Lord give us more and more examples of this kind of grace!
