God delights in seeing drug dealers in his church.

I recently went to London on a Friday night to evangelise in the West End. One of the first people I spoke to, Desmond, said when asked his thoughts on Christianity "I don't believe in Christianity because the Churches don't do what they are meant to do".

As excuses go, I liked that one.


But what does Desmond mean? What are churches meant to do?

Who better to ask than Desmond? His answer: "Churches shouldn't be in their flashy buildings, they should be with the broken families and in the police cells."

I already liked this guy, because he's right. Church isn't a building but its a people, and its people should be involved with the sinners. Don't get me wrong, of course there is time for Christians to spend time with Christians, but we are called to reach and to serve the unconverted and the unsaved. This can't be done by sitting in our comfortable homes with just the people we like. Everyone can love the people that love them. As a Christian we should love the people that are socially rejected. Why? Because that's what Jesus did; the word 'Christian' means "Christ-like". So if we are not doing what Jesus did, are we Christian? Are we Christian, just because we believe in Christ?

I was proud (a Godly pride, that is) that I could tell Desmond that our Church is very involved in the local gangs, the poor and the broken families across the UK. In fact our Sunday meetings our held on a "rough" estate, where it's not uncommon for children as young as 12 to be involved in drugs. Teenage pregnancy is becoming the norm, and its "cool" to have a criminal record

God wants to reach out to the drug dealers and the prostitutes, therefore I'm sure God delights in seeing drug dealers in His Church.