Or would you rather be a mule...

Or would you like to swing on a star, carry moon beams home in a jar, be a lot better off than you are....or would you rather be


An airport.

That's the latest analogy for a local congregation. Big glossy photo enhanced runways adorn the lobby and the handouts. Runways. Because you're not welcome to stay very long.

From Wiki:

An airport is a facility where aircraft can take off and land. At the very minimum, an airport consists of one runway (or helipad), but other common components are hangars and terminal buildings. Apart from these, an airport may have a variety of facilities and infrastructure, including fixed base operator services, air traffic control, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. A military airport is known as an airbase in North American terminology



Not someplace you want to hang around very much. In fact, today's airports are ground zero in the war against terror, so for sure, the little church is more an air base for war than a place to wait for your transportation to a lovely south seas vacation. You don't meet people at air ports, the ones who are there are there to serve you or search you. Someone may come in from the outside to meet you, but please call ahead, because no one wants to hang around there.

Again from Wiki :Airports have a captive audience, and consequently the prices charged for food is generally higher than are available elsewhere in the region.


I always thought a church was an embassy. Or even a consulate.

Wiki again: A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organization (such as the United Nations) present in another state to represent the sending state/organization in the receiving state. In practice, a diplomatic mission usually denotes the permanent mission, namely the office of a country's diplomatic representatives in the capital city of another country...A Consulate is similar to (but not the same as) a diplomatic office, but with focus on dealing with individual persons and businesses, as defined by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. A Consulate is generally a representative of the Embassy in locales outside of the capital city. For instance, The British Embassy to the United States is in Washington, D.C., and there are British Consulates in Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, and so on....The role of such a mission is to protect in the receiving State the interests of the sending State and of its nationals, within the limits permitted by international law; negotiating with the Government of the receiving State as directed by the sending State; ascertaining by lawful means conditions and developments in the receiving State, and reporting thereon to the Government of the sending State; promoting friendly relations between the sending State and the receiving State, and developing their economic, cultural and scientific relations.

Yep. A place to go when you're in trouble in a foreign land. A place where people are waiting to help you.

18Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

19namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.(NASV)


Not pilots, not air traffic controllers, not air marshalls, not flight attendents and not ticket agents. Ambassadors.

So not an airport or an air base, but an embassy.