I saw the sign, and loved my church a little more

I was on my way home from church today and I passed another church. It was a traditional church building with a sign by the road. I love reading church signs. Sometimes I find irony, sometimes I find the truth, sometimes I find a lie, often I find encouragement.
I think I found a little bit of all of those in this one sign today. The sign read:

Come join us and worship God
Are you ready for the judgment?

Now, the sign read exactly like that. One sentence on each line. I know that they were referring to two different things. The first sentence was a genuine invitation, and the second was most likely a question asking if we were ready to come before the throne of God and be judged. But that's not how it reads is it? Not to mention, if you're completely God illiterate you might not understand that God will judge us all one day.
It read to me, for a moment, that if you come and worship God you will be judged by the congregation.
Come and worship God with us, if you're thin enough, if you have the right clothes, if you act like us, if you smell like us, if you turn your nose up at the same things as us. Come and worship God if you have the right systematic theology, if you're straight enough, if you are able to tithe more then the standard 10% (and don't even consider giving one penny less the 10% pre-tax to us). If you're single, come and worship God with us so we can marry you off and get you some kids, because that's really the path to righteousness (especially if you're a woman). But you better be celibate. You better not have even thought about having sex before marriage...because sexual sin is the sum of all your parts and we don't want any of that complicated temptation in this building...what if you hang out with kids! While we're at it, we better not even acknowledge anything about sex, or masturbation, or pornography...because that would be like inviting that sin into our lives. Come and worship God with us, we're super cool and set apart from the world and you can be too! Come and worship God with us. If you do, then you won't have to talk to anyone that isn't like you anymore, and if you do, well then you can tell them why their going to hell and why God is mad at them. Come and worship God with us!

Ok. Seriously, that actually went through my head as I drove past this church sign. I do get that I was judging them. I see the hypocrisy in that. I'm working on it alright...
But on the flip side, it made me love my church a little more. I go to, and get to take part in a church that is filled with awesome people that are messy, irrational, moody, cool, funny, hip, uncomfortable and for the most part filled with this love for a God that loves them back, for a God that loves them so much he sent his Son to be crucified and atone for the sins of us all. I go to a church where people talk about God realistically. They sometimes use platitudes, but more often then not they talk about God in the midst of the mess of their life, in the midst of their struggles. They talk about a Holy God, a God that is GOOD even though He doesn't fit into the definition of what we want good to be. I love these people that make up my church.
I love the woman that came straight from chemo to make cotton candy at Sports Camp, I love that I can confess things to another woman and she not only listens but is compassionate and doesn't declare me the nicest of the damned because of my struggles. I love that when Ben was talking about the fall last week Ben acknowledged that many a dirty joke could be made about the naked part of that story.
I just love that I get to do life with these people. I love hanging out with them.
I love that I can bring friends to church that hate church, that have been so deeply wounded by church. I love that it is not only acceptable that I am friends with people who don't believe in God, or are supremely pissed at him, but that those relationships are encouraged.
My church will let you belong before asking you to believe or behave. I know there are tons of other churches out there like mine. But I love mine the most.