Saw this recently: “Hey pastor, if you have a visitor in your church, maybe don’t make jokes about Democrats or say insulting things about your wife from the pulpit.”

Hey pal, if you’re a visitor at church, maybe don’t share your opinions about jokes, wives, or anything else. Maybe just be quiet.

Until you’ve spent some time among the brethren and understand their culture, you haven’t got the right to be insulted. You don’t know enough to be outraged. It is offensive when guests take offense to the family in their own home. The advertising for the hipster church in your area may have told you that your point of view matters but I’m telling you it doesn’t. Those hipsters are hoping to boost the attendance for their weekly worship band concert and they’ve seen their crowd sizes balloon by pretending to care what you think. Trust me. You’re not as big a deal as they’ve led you to believe.

Awhile back we (the Church) started calling visitors “seekers” because we believed that the strangers in our midst were searching for something. It took upwards of 30 years for us to finally realize those seekers were actually missionaries. They had come to teach us how to evangelize them. “Hey Pastor, if you want to reach me with your message, here’s what you’ll need to do…”

The Church became diligent disciples of these missionaries. We believed them when they told us that if we made them the center of our attention, they would submit themselves to Christ. That’s why you don’t hesitate to scold the Pastor for his joke. You think you’re still the reason we gather together.

You’re welcome to stick around, Pal. Maybe you’ll become part of the flock some day. Who knows? Perhaps we’ll swap Democrat jokes! But if you’re going to stay, keep your ignorant opinions to yourself until your opinions aren’t ignorant anymore.

(Acts 2:42) They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common.