Wednesday, 11 June 2008
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Pastor Invites Thief to Join the Congregation
This is kind of old news but I wanted to pass it along. I read about this at StuffChristiansLike. (By the way, if you've never heard of that site before, do take a minute to visit. It's hilarious, but heartwarming too. And it's definitely not meant to be offensive, as it's written by a Christian guy who I believe really lives out his faith in a very sincere and inspiring way.)
On March 2, 2008, Kinetic Church in Charlotte, NC, discovered that their trailer containing their entire children's ministry, hospitality ministry and parts of their worship center had been stolen. Instead of being bitter, angry, or even just moving on, they decided to get the thief's attention with this:
A lot of people have been bothered by the use of the word, "ballsy" in the billboard, but trust me, that's not the point.
The church then followed up with a video message from the pastor on YouTube. The video is a refreshingly sincere invitation to the thief/thieves to receive forgiveness and join their church community. Check it out:
If something like this happened to you, could you respond in this way?
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Comments (16)
My husband saw this billboard on his way to a men's retreat a couple of weekends ago. He came back and looked up the church, I going to share the video with him. wow.
To be honest, no, I'm not sure that I could respond in the way the pastor did.
I just don't like the word "ballsy". I mean maybe I am just being too.. whatever, but we all know it is a sexual reference. But oh well. Otherwise, cool story.
I had heard of this billboard...but this video was simply beautiful. It was just amazing to watch. Does anyone know if the thieves called the Pastor up? I would love to hear what happens.
As for my forgiveness...it has never been this genuine and heartfelt. This is very, very convicting.
God invited me to join his Church, and I was a little thief, liar, and murderer. Praise God he forgives!!!!! Thanks to the Blod of Jesus Christ, I am no longer what I was...
And, yes, through the grace and Spirit of Jesus Christ, I think I could do it....without Him, I'd probably pound the guy into a bloody pulp if I ever found him.....but with Jesus Christ, all things are possible....
thanks for sharing.
wow, that's awesome. any idea what happened?
this kind of reminds me, a couple months ago someone stole my friend's bible out of her bag. the guy that stole it wound up giving it back to her a couple days later. he said he stole it with every intention of tearing it up, but he opened it to a verse she had bookmarked. i can't remember what the verse was, but it totally changed his heart and they say and talked and he wound up going to a crusade meeting and becoming a believer
I don't have a problem with "ballsy."
The best thing about this video was the pastor pointing out that many of the church members are broken people.
I live in Charlotte and those billboards are up all over town...it's amazing. They keep coming up with different ones...like we just passed one last night that said "church trailer thief....we hope you like our communion trays" it's pretty entertaining really....I don't know about anyone else but if I was the thief I would be feeling REALLY guilty right about now.
I LOVE IT!!!!
@Adamsgirl2009@xanga - haha that's awesome! Did the thief ever step forward? That would be incredible if he did.
Last year a good friend of mind that happens to be in seminary left his messenger bag in his car, parked outside of the Boston Commons. Someone must have thought it was a laptop bag and busted his window and stole the bag. Surprisingly my friend wasn't as upset as I would have expected, all that was inside the bag was notes from his classes and a Bible. He's hoping the guy took the time to read it and became a Christian. =)
@mrsdandelion - not that I know of....that was the newest billboard...it took place of the "ballsy" sign...its pretty awesome seeing a church pull together like this and do it with class....lots of churches would split over something like this happening....its a great church....i went to it once and it was pretty amazing
haha cool!! ballsy!
I really love this. I think it was a perfect way for the church to react and give glory to God. I hope the thief gets in touch with the pastor.
that's a really amazing way to reach out to those people and to forgive them