A Chicago pastor was so concerned about the spiritual health of his congregation that he decided to put them to the test.
Dr. James MacDonald, senior pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, is well known in the ministry field and has been in it since 1988.
His congregation at Harvest Bible Chapel campuses comprises around 13,000 people every week, yet he wanted to make sure that his sermons were impacting the people and not merely doing eye service.
So Pastor MacDonald disguised himself with a fake beard and a ratty coat and showed up at Harvest Bible Chapel pushing a shopping cart.
Looking just like a homeless man, he sat himself down at the front door of the chapel with an empty cup and a cardboard sign. Attendees had to walk right by him to enter the sanctuary.
The attendees did not know that it was their senior pastor dressed up as a homeless man, and they also did not know that their reactions were being videotaped.
Footage of them has since gone viral, with more than a million views. It shows some of the churchgoers just glancing at him as they pass by.
Others turn around as soon as they spot him and walk off in the opposite direction so that they don’t bump into him. Some don’t even bother to look at him.
All of a sudden, the mask came off. When MacDonald walked down the church’s main aisle pushing his shopping cart some weeks later, people realized that the homeless man was in fact their senior pastor.
MacDonald then preached Matthew 5:45 (“For (God) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust”). “If we’re gonna love like our Father in Heaven loves, we don’t get to play favorites,” he said.
Fortunately, most at Harvest Bible Chapel didn’t. “I was crying inside that beard,” MacDonald said.
“I cannot believe the people in this church, the number of people that prayed with me and brought me food. Just watch and see.”
The touching video showed people bringing him food, coffee, and money, and praying for him. And that’s exactly what a world lost in sin and struggling to find meaning needs to see.
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