Encouraged

I was at a United Church the other day and an interesting thing happened. An elderly man, having heard that I was a pastor, asked me, "Are you some sort of religious person?" The funny thing about this was that he was a regular attendee of the church, yet he didn't know how to articulate "Christian" or "follower of Jesus"!

Then, right after, another elderly person came up to me about my vocation and basically told me that "Jesus is the only way" and "Jesus is Lord". He also quoted to me Psalm 22 and reminded me about penal substitution. When I asked him about United Church theology, which typically denies the existence of hell and doesn't affirm Jesus as the only way, he quietly responded: "I'm an evangelical"! Imagine that, an evangelical in a United Church!

I was truly blessed by both of these encounters for two reasons: 1. There is hope for churches that do not have the gospel, 2. There is hope in God changing the elderly to receive the gospel.

God is amazing!