the bubble

What is so irrelevant about Christians and their churches today? Is it the service format? Is it the denomination? Is it the t-shirts, bumper stickers and corny messages? I think the issue goes much deeper.

In the midst of attempting to be relevant and engaging to the culture around, we're changing the wrong things. We're setting up phenomenal experiences, marketing our services toward "the lost" and making our churches less and less traditional and uptight. Yet, nothing is really changing. Drawing people into the Christianized sub-culture is not having an radical effect on their hearts and minds. This proves the fact that people do not want to conform to a lifestyle defined by cultural judgements and presumptions. They want and need to understand love. We could be taking Christ to the streets, loving and spending time with people without an agenda attatched to our conversations. But instead, have we traded the investments of true relationship for the quick-fix lifestyle change that is only a reflection of the current consumerist mindset? It's so much easier to bring people into this "safe" and enlosed environment, and I dare say that we'd be happy never darkening the places that need us most. The "come-to-us" philosophy sucks. It doesn't work. The Christian life should not be spent building churches and giving to further the "kingdom of churchianity". Maybe if we stopped being so involved in church activities, we'd get a better picture of reality and what Jesus is doing the lives of people outside of the Institution. I'm not talking about cleaning up everyone's act, it's about pouring our hearts out to others so that their's may be changed to think and love differently. (not about the actions).

I may sound a little mad, but I'm really not. I see these things in myself more than anyone. Although I'm not a big fan of the Christian group, "Avalon", a verse from one of their older songs has struck me:

Wait a minute, if we say we love them
why are we not in it? why we run and hide?
entertain a stranger, maybe entertain an angel
the danger is if our worlds don't collide

Evangelism is not a separate task, nor is it a rallied cause. Christ' love should come out naturally as we live daily. We don't have to an agenda or support the latest Christian fad to feel like we're doing our "job". This way of making things prettier and safer without being truthful about the reality of life makes us irrelevant and unconcerned with the world around us.

In his book "Radical Reformission", Mark Driscoll states:

Rules, regulations and the pursuit of outward morality are ultimately incapable of preventing sin. They can only, at best, rearrange the flesh and get people to stop drinking, smoking, and having sex, only to start being proud of their morality. Jesus' love for us and our love for him are, frankly, the only tethers that will keep us from abusing our freedom, yet they will enable us to venture as far into the culture and into relationships with lost people as Jesus did, because we go with him.


Let us love others with perseverance and openness.

summer safety

Well, not exactly...

With the first few week of summer resting on assured plans and blueprints for the future, the coming weeks have only promised uncertainty. Some major changes are taking place, leaving me with more questions to ponder. I don't particularly understand why I have spent the past two years in a particular state of life only to watch it slowly lose its fire in my heart. But now, I'm heading down the other path that sheds an obscure light, leaving minute trails of hope with every glimmer of Grace that I receive. There's no destination, no map, just me holding on to what I know is True. I know that I will get through, just not on my terms or ideas. Thankfully, I am surrounded by love and the support I need to make it.

I will be stretched to love more, fight more and hope more than I ever have.