Welcome

Welcome to the new website and blog for Knox Knolls Free Methodist Church. It is our desire as a church to become more and more like Jesus. God has lead our church in the next season of our life together to be a people who are welcoming everyone, and making disciples. This vision comes at a time when there are in our society a great many doors closing. Our mobility has made us tired and scattered. Our enemies, real or imagined, have made us afraid. Our sins have trapped us in our own little worlds. Our uncertainties have stalled us. Our screens have made us dull. We have been made to feel unwelcome in so many venues, and as a result we have become unwelcoming. To take up a vision that leads us to acts of welcome in an unwelcoming world is to imitate the very heart of Jesus.

Luke 15:2 finds the Pharisees and scribes offering their pious critique of the company that Jesus keeps. “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” To this criticism, Jesus reminds us that it is the lost sheep that we pursue, the lost coin that we search for and damaged, sinful prodigal that we run to receive with open arms. Welcome invites criticism. Welcome requires spirit inspired effort. In the words of Christine Pohl, this kind of welcome is, "simultaneously costly and wonderfully rewarding." We welcome everyone because Jesus welcomed everyone, even us.

Elsewhere Christine Pohl observes, "A life of hospitality begins in worship, with a recognition of God's grace and generosity. Hospitality is not first a duty and responsibility; it is first a response of love and gratitude for God's love and welcome to us." May we come to recognize that we are prodigals who have been received. We are sinners who God has clothed, taken in. Where all other doors have closed, Jesus is that gate which has opened to us. When our enemies surround, God prepares a gracious table and invites us to feast.

As we have been so lovingly and repeatedly welcomed, may we become a church that is known for welcoming everyone, and making disciples.