My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?
– James 2:1-4 MSG
Have you ever been in one of those situations where you might have felt passed over, forgotten, or clearly ignored? Sadly, there are those across our many churches (and world) who often feel this way. Most likely, there are many who are now no longer part of a church because of this. My father was an amazing pastor, and to me he might have seemed like the perfect pastor — but, we know that’s not probable. However, one thing I do remember about him was that he treated everyone the same…extreme high denominational leaders to the church custodian — even the homeless (which, we saw often where our church building was located). He simply loved people, exactly what a pastor should do.
My dear friends, receive the encouragement from James 2 to treat everyone the same. Everyone deserves our smiles, attention, handshakes, and even our hugs.
Luke Gambill 
I agree your father was a very special person and a great leader. Thanks for the invite.