In 2007, while on a mission trip to Pearlington, Mississippi, we met up with another church youth group. It was somewhat dueling church groups, each not wanting to step on other’s boundaries. We had come specifically to conduct the worship services that Sunday morning. They had come to help fix up the church and houses around it (the area had been hit by a hurricane a few years before).
I noticed one kid had an unusual haircut, a Mohawk. I realize that his youth minister and peers were well accustomed to it. I’m sure the kid had a servant attitude in mind, after all he had given up his fall break to volunteer to help fix up the church building in a city several hours drive away.
Still a fear inside of me made me want to say “Please don’t let this kid serve on the Lord’s Table.” After all we need a sense of dignity, in lieu of a punk style haircut. My fears became reality when during that worship service, sure enough he was on the Lord’s table passing the bread and grape juice. And everything seemed to turn out fine
I think we all have a fear and prejudiced against people who were not brought up in the church. I know I have a prejudice against these type people. You want them to quickly assimilate, gain unwavering faith, and have the same core belief values as you do. There is a certain degree of uneasiness when they start wearing shorts to church, admit they have beer in their fridge, and occasionally hang out at bars.
Certainly one has got to realize that of the 3000 souls saved in Acts 2, not all of them were just like the other. Many came from vastly different backgrounds. And certainly that is how the church should be today. After all we are told to preach the Gospel to every creature, even the ones with Mohawks.
Our stateside mission trip was this past week. I was told that all of those baptized didn’t have a ride to church and therefore could be classified as lower class, assuming they didn’t own cars. I wanted to see these new Christians assimilate quickly. But I must remain patient. No doubt some will fall away because they have no root. Some which gain Christian friendships through the church and therefore are likely to continue going. But these new Christians might be different than your typical white middle class Christians. They come from different backgrounds and we need to keep reminding ourselves that they did not have the same upbringing and instilled values as the rest of us.
The kid with the Mohawk? I have no idea where he is at. I would think that he’s ditched the Mohawk by now, after all it would be incredibly difficult to get a white collar job with that.