Last week I heard a man complaining about how awful a particular organization was to him and his daughter. I didn’t know the story so I asked him to tell me the whole episode in some detail. He took about 15 minutes describe a terrible situation and how one leader of the organization had shown no concern, said some stupid things and was generally hostile toward Christians. After he was done talking I said calmly and respectfully, “It sounds like your problem is not with that organization but with this one person.”

He respond affirmatively but also restated that this person was the leader of that organization. To which I questioned him a little further in his thinking and asked, “Are his actions representative of the whole group?” “Does everyone there act the way he did?” Finally, “is the whole group guilty or just one or two people?”

Here is the tension in life. Every group is actually just made of up of individuals and every individual represents that group.

We can say we are mad at Wal-Mart when really we are just upset at how the one lady in customer service treated us that day. We can be very happy with the car dealership when in reality it was just how that one salesman treated us that one time. Your view of every group is the result of how individuals act.

The important reality for each one of us is that this is true of Christians and Churches. Your actions will help people form their views of what it means to follow Jesus. Your actions will make people angry or happy with the Church. What will your actions today or this weekend say to the world?