Church club.
Oh man, still no picture. My camera is having a little visit with Karen's sister so she can take pictures. I hope it's having fun. It hasn't even called me!!!Yeah. So yesterday i read this article in the GR Press, which, for the uninterested or people from the future who won't know what "Press" means (and for whom the link will certainly be broken) it tells the story of a preacher who invited his neighbor to his church, and six years later, the neighbor said he'd become(d???) a Christian. Their relationship, as described in the article, seemed to revolve primarily around chats while taking the trash out.
Okay, every time someone says they follow Christ i'll be happy. Awesome. Super w00t! and all that. But how come this pastor's first act of evangelism was to invite his neighbor to his church? Maybe i'm just reflecting the often stated goal of my church to get us members OUT THERE, where people are hurting, and not primarily with getting them to come to church.
I'm starting to think of a church building as a kind of clubhouse. If you want people into your club, you invite them to the clubhouse. But being a Christian is not having membership in a club, it's a difference in perspective, a modification of the most foundational substrate of your being. Christianity is not even a lifestyle. It's God's grace, redeeming your soul, smiling on you, working in you. You can't demonstrate your Christianity by wearing Go God t-shirts and spouting scripture and jargon. In fact, there's a couple kids at work who've somehow detected how seriously i take Christianity, and carry their Bibles around, showing me verses. All this while their behavior kind of sucks. One of them i told to shut up until he could treat people right. I was pretty blunt... poor kid.
To continue the clubhouse analogy, to make membership in any club more attractive, you make it plush and fancy, with five thousand dollar spotlights, and delicious coffee and stuff. This appears to me to be a priority of many megachurches, where it's not for Mars Hill Bible Church... but the cynical (which i totally am) would suggest that Mars Hill, with the hard plastic chairs, dirty white "shed" and stained carpet is just engaging in a clever little double bluff.
Family news: Houston ate a whole can of green beans today. I had two forkfuls, but he snarfed the rest down. And he and Katrina were both very surprised to hear that most kids their age don't really like pepper. "WHY???" asked Houston.