The Ignorance of Isolationism 3: The problem of isolating - GBC Bulletin Column #58

The past couple of weeks I have written on the foolishness of Christian individuals who isolate themselves from others in their church body and of churches that isolate themselves from other churches. But there is something very sad that must be acknowledged in some (though certainly not all) cases: the problem of people who have not isolated themselves, but who for various reasons have been isolated.

Hurting people seeking help, broken people looking for healing, lonely people searching for a home, and they do not find what they seek because they are deemed too high maintenance, a drain on time and resources. Young people, needing spiritual leadership and wanting to find some helpful way of living out their Christian faith but they are written off for immaturity and not seriously invested in simply on the basis of their age. Outwardly healthy and stable families, who look like they have it all together and so are left to do their own thing – all while the cracks in their relationships are beginning to show at home, the husband is becoming distant, the wife domineering, the kids rebellious. Fragmented families, most commonly involving a single or separated mother, but again, we wouldn’t want the church to be saddled with too much baggage, would we? Families with a disabled child/children, disabled people themselves, couples, singles, people who are too poor, people who are too posh, people with a low if any perceivable standard of personal hygiene and people who are so neat and polished it’s distracting, the fit, the fat, the gifted, the seemingly talentless, foreign language speakers, people of other ethnic groups and skin colours...and on and on the list goes. To leave someone isolated who desperately needs the community of Christ’s family is to sinfully choose favourites leaving no one to cheer on the feeble, remind the forgetful, pick up the fallen, or point the filthy to the blood of Christ that cleanses.  

Of course, the God-breathed Scriptures would put it far better than I ever could: 

My brothers, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For example, a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes also comes in. If you look with favour on the man wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” haven’t you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?... Indeed, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbour as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show favouritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors (James 2:1-4, 8-9).

More than once I have preached in churches and during after service tea seen one person who doesn’t seem to fit in sitting or standing alone while everyone else chats to the familiar faces of their friends. Sometimes that person is a visitor and the only person who will talk to him is also a visitor (me!), other times it is someone in more regular attendance who just doesn’t fit the desired demographic or is in some way different so no one takes the time to get to them . This is a travesty. It shouldn't be this way. Family - let us do better! Brothers - let us make sure we don’t leave anyone behind! 

This was printed in the worship bulletin of Grace Baptist Church (Wood Green) on 10 August 2014.