And sometimes it will be in the acts of obedience which surprise even those who participated in the decision.
First Presbyterian Church was proud of its recent successes. They were confident that one of the reasons that most churches were not growing as they were was because other churches got themselves involved in too many social problems. First Presbyterian had distanced themselves from their denomination as much as possible and focused all of their resources on creating programs for their own members. The church had recently renovated their sanctuary and built a brand new family life center to better serve their own people.
Then someone firebombed a Black church in their city and somehow that struck a chord in the Session. “No one has a right to burn a church,” said one elder. “It’s the most despicable thing that you can do,” agreed another. Soon, to their own surprise, they had voted to work with the firebombed church and to help organize and pay for its rebuilding. “I don’t even know who to call,” said the surprised moderator. “It’s about time we found out,” said one elder. “After all,” he said with some wonder in his voice, “we are all members of the same church.”
