It’s a scarier world out there—part because that as the end of time approaches people will become more lawless and part because we hear about it.

What I mean by the latter is that, at one point we didn’t hear the news that happened all around us—we were disconnected.  Now we can find out with a few clicks all sorts of things about our neighbors.

Checking the Churches

This has caused many churches to take steps that they may have never taken before.  When we were considering calling a new pastor, we did a credit check as well as a Background Check to know what we were getting into.

A recent magazine on Church ministries said that Criminal Background Checks should be performed on all people in ministry with youth—that somehow these Criminal Checks will help the parents of kids feel better about leaving their children with the church’s caregivers.

A Weird Thought

To me, though I believe that churches need to do checking, this is a little odd since we’re claiming that when Christ enters your life you’re a changed person.  Now, being a changed person doesn’t negate what you’ve done earlier in life, and there are definitely disqualifying things that can be in a persons past (so we don’t put them in temptation to do an old sin), but at the same time we’re supposed to be practicing love, forgiveness, and acknowledge God’s will.

Jesus had a thief, a liar, and a traitor handling the money.

No, I’m not suggesting putting a person caught in robbery as the treasurer, or a child predator in the nursery, I’m just saying that we should be careful not to set ourselves up as someone else’s judge.  That our knowledge about what they’ve done in their past be tempered with our knowledge that we all stand equal in the eyes of God—as sinners saved by grace.