Church

I remember being 19. Really. I was so sure of everything that was right and wrong. I wasn't afraid to let others know when they were doing something wrong.

As I got older, I think this was tempered a bit, but not much. My new attitude was "if you're not where I am spiritually, you're not in the right place."

Now, I hope my attitude is one of letting God deal with me where I am and letting God deal with people where they are. The important part of this is that it is OK for this to happen. You don't have to be where I am and I don't have to be where you are. Does this make sense?

Last week, I ran into an interesting attitude. I was having a discussion with someone about the death penalty. I used to be adamantly, all-the-time, black-and-white for the death penalty. While I am still in favor of the death penalty, it is with great reluctance.

The guy I was talking to was a believer and was against the death penalty. No problem; one needs to stand up for what they believe is right. However, in our discussion his attitude seemed to be "If you would just think about this as much as I have, you would agree with me." As you can imagine, I had a problem with that. My response was "What if I have thought about this issue and I still agree with the implementation death penalty?" I haven't heard back from him...

I've been reading a lot of Christians lately who are very upset with the Church. Their basic complaint seems to be that the Church is flawed and not doing a very good job keeping up with the changes in our culture.

What's the big deal? Seriously, did people really not know the Church was flawed? Was this some big surprise? Did everyone suddenly wake up some time around January 2000 and figure out that we're not perfect? Of course we're not perfect. If you want to go to a church where you're greeted immediately, and people get to know you, make you feel welcome, shake your hand, ask about your kids/job/life/spouse, and where the preacher doesn't make you mad and where you love the music, don't come to my church. It's not going to happen. Take your august self somewhere else. I promise you that if you show up with this freaking laundry list of things that have to happen NONE of it will happen. You'll be sitting in your lonely pew, crying in your bulletin that nobody is paying attention to you, the music is too loud/quiet/fast/slow and the pastor doesn't speak good...

How does this tie into the attitudes I was talking about earlier? These are Christians I'm talking about, i.e. people who should know better. These are people who are mad/upset/disappointed with everyone else at church because they (the Church) doesn't think the same way the complainers do. If a church doesn't have a homeless ministry, does that mean the church isn't in God's will? What if the church isn't relevant to today's culture and doesn't have small groups/cells/life groups and multiple satellite locations? Are they not where they should be with the Father?

In the interest of clarification, I think that it's great that churches have homeless ministries and I'm trying to get mine to go to downtown Dallas. I also like the idea of cell groups, but don't really like the whole satellite concept. Does that mean that I don't think churches should do the whole "satellite" thing. Of course not. I go to prisons with Bill Glass ministries. Does that mean that you should also? Maybe, but that's between you and God, not between me and you. If you don't go with me to prison or to downtown Dallas, it doesn't make me mad or even disappointed; I am compelled to go regardless of who goes with me. It is fruitless to get angry or upset with other people over this. Believe me, I've tried being people's Holy Spirit and it's no fun.

Having said all that, do I think that many Christians need to get out of their couch zone, turn off the TV, and go talk with some actual humans, just like Jesus did*? Yes. Does it bother me that many Christians talk the talk, but don't walk at all? Yes. Am I going to let it keep me awake nights? No. I'm responsible to do what God has called me to do and for me it ends there. If you want to go to prison with me or do some work in Dallas, email me.

Please let me know what you think of this. Am I way off base?


*OK, Jesus didn't turn off the TV...