Let me tell you the one line that will send me screaming from any new church I visit.

It’s not: “Would you like to join the property committee?”

Nor is it: “Our organist Ethel has been with the church for eighty years and she’s still going strong!”

It isn’t even: “We went through a kind of split lately but it’s really OK because those people were saying and doing these things and honestly we’re better off without them.” (Well, I might run from this church, too.)

The one line that raises my hackles and sets me on high alert is to all appearances innocuous, innocent, and charming.

It’s this: “Our church is one big family.”

Noooooooooo!

What’s wrong with this? Let me count the ways………………………..