The Beast in the Mirror

Pardon me for a few minutes while I rant.

"Intellectual", "worldly", "secular", "seeker-friendly"... These are some of the charismatic world's favorite labels for the Christians it doesn't understand. You know - "ignorant" and "unstable" people. (Not my words. Please refer to 2 Peter.) If many of these label-happy Christians would read their Bibles very carefully, they would find that Jesus is the biggest offender of all. For such (false) religious zealots, might I suggest stepping out from behind your (false) religious goggles and reading the gospels. There IS a reason the gospel has been called scandalous. There was a reason that religious people hated and killed Jesus.

To those of you who know more churches doing it wrong than right:
1. Consider the sermon on the mount: judge things by their fruit. For example, could you convince ANY non-Christian (or me) that there is value in what YOU do every Sunday morning. Seriously, does it make a difference in anyone's life? Tell me why my life is lacking because I wasn't at your church last Sunday. (Feel free to comment.) P.S. Don't judge other people by a standard you don't have a chance of standing up to yourself.

2. Consider the beatitude, "blessed is the superior Christian, more religious than any other." Wait. That's not how it goes... How about this: "You are the body of Christ. Now, take a shot-gun and blow off all the parts you deem inferior to yourself." Phew. We got that one nailed down.

3. Jesus never called us to have church services. If Sunday morning is all you got and the apple of your ministerial/religious eye, Emperor Constantine would be proud, but Jesus might not be.

Let me conclude by saying this:
1. I do not apologize for my harshness.
2. I am particularly sensitive to this special type of "ignorance" because, for a long time, I was the one facing this beast in the mirror.
3. I am a pastor desperately trying to figure things out. What I have said, I say with humility, not arrogance. What the church needs (in my humble opinion) is for more Christians to step out of their fear so that we call all figure some things out and REALLY make a difference in this world.

Negligent Faith

Faith. It is the most important thing, right? Here's the thing , though. Most of us would never handle our jobs wit the same degree of negligence that we handle our faith. We would never handle our finances with same hap hazardous approach we use for our faith. Our spouses and children would classify us as "neglectful."

How is it that matters of faith, then, get pushed off onto the back burner. Why doesn't prayer ever really get done? Why are "daily" devotions the relegated to mystical super-Christians?

Maybe what we need a faith-based retirement (or death) planners...

"Yeah, um, when I die, I want to be ______________ prepared. I'm hoping for a crown of glory in heaven that is of __________ quality. What do I need to begin doing now to get there?"

Let's make some plans. Let's become the people we were born to be.