Early in one of my church plants, I got a strange call from
another pastor in town. He told me about a couple who had visited his church
the previous Sunday. He explained that they were really not “his kind of
people,” and that maybe they would fit better in my new congregation.
To put it bluntly, he didn’t want these undesirables coming back to his
church and he was hoping to pawn them off on me.
Even though the call left a bad taste in my mouth, I took
down the family’s contact information. I ended up visiting them in their home, sharing the gospel,
and leading them to Christ.
Why was this couple not “his kind of people?” The pastor
never came right out and said, but I think he must have pegged them as too poor--the wrong kind of social class. His very wealthy church was composed of many local dairy farm owners. The couple I visited, and led to the Lord, were
common laborers who worked on one of the dairies. I guess the pastor felt they
wouldn’t fit in.
