It’s Sunday morning and the faithful have gathered. As I look around to see where the church is Monday thru Saturday I note that maybe half this group is retired. Hometown Friends Church has three services and the 9:45 gathering includes quite a few gray heads. These folks are no longer models of Christian living in the workplace. But even an old guy like Kenneth knows the church should be open to smokers, alcoholics, and prostitutes—and he’s willing to stand up and say it.

I notice Dave whose used car lot is a block and a half and a world away from my office. As a Christian publisher, the things that happen in my office tend to have some institutional flavor. We don’t make direct contact with the same type of people that Dave interacts with on his car lot.

The real work of the church doesn’t happen in this sanctuary with its stained glass windows. It’s on the car lot, in the classroom, at the coffee shop, across the street and across the hall, in the store, at the office, and in the home.