St. John?

I had the pleasure of visiting Haywood Street Congregation this past week.  If you have never heard of Haywood Street, I encourage you to look it up (http://haywoodstreet.org/).  Haywood Street is...well, an unusual church. 
Haywood Street is a church that expects diversity.
They expect diversity in the form of race.
They expect diversity in economic situations.
They expect diversity in housing (or no housing) situations.

Haywood Street is a church with a high expectation of what church should be all about.

And yet...Haywood Street is a church that also carries no expectations at all. 

Ultimately, Haywood Street is a church that has a heart for those who are outcasts of society. 
Many churches claim this, but I must say that Haywood Street is the first church I know that lives this out to the fullest extent.

They see people as Children of God and not as scary dangerous people.
They see all people as friends...not an object to serve.
They see people as real.

I was fascinated to experience this church.  I felt like I got a glimpse into what Jesus' ministry looked like.  I also understood why that scared so many of the religious leaders.  This wasn't a "clean" experience.  People smelled, people cussed like sailors, and smoked like chimney's.  I stood in line with one individual that was so drunk, I occasionally had to help keep him from falling over.

And yet, these people were loved.  Not just in word...they were truly loved.  The gentleman that could barely stand told me no less than 20 times how loved he felt by the church and how loved he felt by the pastors.  He confessed his "drinking sin" to me just as many times.  He talked about how he was held accountable by the pastors and yet the pastors still loved him when he fell off the wagon.  

I also kept thinking about how these folks would not be welcomed in most churches that I know.  They would be welcomed to certain activities, but they would not truly be "welcomed" the way they are at Haywood Street.

No one exemplifies this better than John.  John was an interesting man.  He has lived a rough life.  He had quite a "smell" to him.

Haywood Street starts off their Wednesday with a free meal for the community.  Lots of folks show up for this meal, but only about a third or so of them actually make their way into the worship service that follows.  Many churches would see this as a failure, but Haywood Street sees this as a huge success.

As we started the service, we came to our prayer time.  Just as we were about to start our pray...a profanity laced tirade started outside.  A slew of f-bombs were mixed with threats of many kinds.  He wasn't quiet either and he showed little sign of slowing down.  Pastor Brian paused the service and stated "it sounds like Haywood Street outside, John's had a rough week, let's pray for him."  Like that, we went off of our bulletin script and started to pray for John.
We prayed for peace...
We prayed for healing...
We prayed for his Spirit to be calmed...
We prayed that he would feel how loved he is in this community...
We just prayed.  It wasn't in the script or bulletin, but it is what life called for at that moment. 

A few moments later we heard sirens and the police outside helping calm the situation.  I had a mixture of relief and fear.
Relief that they were there to calm the situation...
and fear for John that the police would react to his actions without really knowing what all was going on in his life. 

We move on in the service and debrief what just happened (I'll post about that in a few days).

When we get time to the message, the back door opens and in comes John. 
He walks right up the center aisle and gives Pastor Brian a big hug and apologizes.  He then takes his place in one of the pews up front and just cries for a while. 

How many churches do you know that would allow John to come into the service right after this experience. 
The man that just dropped the f-bomb more times in 5 minutes that I've heard it used in the last year is now welcomed into the church.
The man who was just threatening to "cut" people 10 minutes before that is now sitting in the pew in front of me. 

What was even more amazing is that when it came time for communion, John moved to the front of the sanctuary and sat on the Altar rail.  He pulled a harmonica out of his pocket and played along with the guitar player for the communion music.  The same man that caused such a stir and had me rattled is now participating in worship.  No one acted like this was unusual and no one seemed bothered by the fact that John was now participating. 
It was beautiful.
It was moving.
In many ways...I feel like it was my first experience of what "the church" is supposed to be. 
In some ways, I also felt a great sadness as well. 
I was thinking about how I would react if this same situation had played out at my own church on Sunday morning.  Would I welcome him in or would I escort him out? 
I know how I hope I'd react if this same situation happened this Sunday...but I was sad about how I believe I would have reacted if this had happened before I got to experience Haywood Street.