Several years ago when pastoring in Taft a friend made me a purple martin bird house. It was a beauty. I had wanted martins to come to the place for years. He made this bird house to look like a church, steeple and all. Painted white. I waited for the martin scouts to come and hoisted it into the sky. Wasn't very long before we had birds! Lots of them. Sparrows! They came from everywhere dragging their nesting materials and making themselves at home. I never had one martin. Lots of sparrows. Some martins flew close and even landed on the church birdhouse but they did not care to associate with those noisy, trashy, common sparrows. My martin churchhouse turned into a sparrow haven. The sparrows minded not one bit being snubbed by the martins.
Sometimes our people-church houses are like that. We look for one crowd, the martin folks;with sleek clothing, beautiful voices, good manners, and class. We get some sparrow folks and the martin folks aren't too happy and move on to places where they are more comfortable. Why can't martins and sparrows share the same house? Why can't martin-folks and sparrow-folks do the same? In many churches they do and it is great, and God blesses. In some churches they don't, and I think the Lord is displeased with those birds. " My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him,'You sit here in a good place.', and say to the poor man,'You stand there', or 'Sit here at my footstool.', have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" James 2:2-4