Kane and the West Side Missionary

I had the privilege of being invited to do a worship night at West Side Missionary Baptist Church last Sunday night. Amanda got to go with me, so obviously I had to plan a dedication song in my line-up. Everything, by Michael Buble, has become a cover song that I do - inspired by a request I sang at the wedding of a couple friends, Christian and Macey - and is now shared between Amanda and I because it expresses exactly how I feel about her. (Insert giant giggly smile here)
My song line-up was like this:

Eskimo
Lies
Amen (Chris August cover)
Unpredictable
Everything (Michael Buble cover)
Blind
Psalm 13
Indescribable (Chris Thomlin cover)
Take All of Me
Reign In Us (Starfield cover)

It was a pure joy to experience worship with all ages in the church! A friend of mine, Kristy, serves as their worship leader and arranged the whole concert. Her husband, Kane, shared his testimony with me after the night was finishing up.
When Kane was growing up, his attempt at church ended with the judgmental stares and comments by those that give church the bad image even the Pharisees and Sadducees offered when Jesus was on earth with His ministry. The issue was that in order to come into the temple courts, your image had to be acceptable in the eyes of judges. If you did not meet their standards, you faced ridicule. Jesus came to defy that approach to church; an example we see when he hung out with people like Matthew and Zacchaeus the tax collectors. Both gave several times more than they had stolen back to the people after giving their lives over to the Love that Christ offered! The entire church may not be to blame for carrying such judgmental standards, but the phrase "one or two apples can spoil the whole bunch" really does carry a heavy truth, and Kane fell out of church, as well as any curiosity to explore the Love of God.

Then Kristy entered Kane's picture.

Kristy was involved in the Missionary Baptist Church for a while and urged Kane to try it out with her. After a few invites, Kane had warmed up to the idea, and because of the love Kristy had shown, along with the welcome her church gave him as a new face in their church community, Kane's heart was softened to allow God to work. A little over a week ago, Kane accepted Christ and the adoption into His Family! The errors of a few can never get in the way of the work of our Heavenly Father!

and I got to worship with him! That's a true joy!