What if OJ visits your church?

On your Sunday morning routine greeting people in church, you come across a man sitting by himself in the back. You immediately recognize the voice, the charisma, the presence, the awkward looks from people sitting around him, the whispers and pointing. It’s OJ Simpson.

Yesterday during a Nevada parole hearing, OJ Simpson was granted release from his prison sentence stemming from an armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel. In October, he’ll be a free man, able to reenter the work force, collect his NFL pension, and face the never-ending litany of cameras, reports, and questions. The former Heisman Trophy winner, NFL star, celebrity, actor has now become a shamed and outcast by the very public that launched him to fame.

So what do you do if you see OJ in your church on a Sunday?

1. Welcome him - If OJ shows up, he’s a guest. Like we would any other guest, shake his hand and engage him. When we believe “our church” isn’t for “people like that” we’ve missed the point of what Christ was doing when He sought the misfits and outcasts and invited them to His table of forgiveness. Whoever attends our services are there by God’s direction, guidance, and plan. Sure it’s awkward, and sure it’ll be unsettling. But ministry is rarely clean cut.
2. Review your policy - Most churches are ill-equipped to know what to do when something happens or someone visits or attends who has an ankle bracelet or has to register when they move. Does your church have a written policy about who is allowed to work with children? Background checks? Security team procedures? What to do when you have media requests or a reporter shows up on Sunday to interview church attenders? What to do if you have a registered sex offender on campus? The best time to have these conversations with your leadership and church is now, before you have to respond.
3. Follow up with him - When visitors attend your church, you should always follow up with them. They took time to visit your church, they may be looking for a church or may have no relationship with Jesus. We should always have someone follow up with our guests. Take time to hear from them their experience with us, their story, their background, how God brought them to our church. 
4. Share Jesus with him - It’s unquestioned what OJ did to end up in prison, there is evidence of what happened in Vegas, witnesses came forward, and he was found guilty in court. It’s also very likely in 1994 he committed a double homicide and escaped justice. His guilt before God for his sin is no different than your guilt, than my guilt. When Paul said in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” he meant more than felons, he meant well-mannered adults from stable backgrounds without so much as a parking ticket. Our guilt for our sin was covered, atoned for, and forgiven by the work of Christ for us. OJ, or anyone for that matter, is as much a potential brother or sister in Christ should they respond in faith to the offer of salvation.

​It’s doubtful that you’ll have OJ in your church. But you will have visitors and guests. And if you’re doing it right, you’ll have visitors and guests with checkered pasts. Have wise policy and procedure in place so that with kindness, grace, and a sense of devotion to your calling to lead and shepherd your people well, you can embrace those around you and invite them to be a part of the Kingdom where the only measure of their accomplishments died on a cross for them.

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