How Christ Came to Church

Summary

How Christ Came to Church is an enlivening spiritual Autobiography that grew out of a beleaguered pastor’s startling dream. “I was in the pulpit before a full congregation, just ready to begin my sermon, when a stranger entered and passed slowly up the aisle as though silently asking with his eyes that someone would give him a seat. Half-way up the aisle a gentleman stepped out and offered him a place in his pew, which was quietly accepted. As I began my sermon my attention became riveted on this hearer. To myself I said constantly, ‘Who can that stranger be?’ After the service ended, the visitor had left before I could reach him. The gentleman with whom he had sat remained behind however. I asked him, ‘Can you tell me who that stranger was who sat in your pew this morning?’ In the most matter-of-course way he replied: ‘Why, do you not know that man? It was Jesus of Nazareth.’ ” The dream was the SEMInal event out of which blossomed a complete change in Gordon’s approach to ministry and a vivid transformation in his parishioners.