God and Extreme Home Make Over!

I am into making Sunday morning an "experience". From great worship and messages to great coffee and ambiance I try to leave no stone unturned! (I believe the next great church will be whoever grabs the name "Starbucks Community Church". It will be a title wave of java beans and Jesus and don't forget free wi-fi! We have to be a step up from the worldly Starbucks who makes you pay for Internet access after charging $9 bucks for coffee!) Here is the problem though.....I am sitting with my amazing hot wife (she will be mentioned often because I am shocked that she chose or puts up with me) watching Extreme Home Make Over and thinking..."They are more of the church God called us to than we are!" "Pastor Ty Pennington" and his group of traveling disciples stopping and helping those who can't do it for themselves. This week they were helping this dude who moved his family to a crime riddled area of New Mexico. This guy gave up everything to change peoples world right in the middle of Albuquerque. Millions of people, Christian and NON, watch this show every week WHY? Because everyone loves to see hope fulfilled. To think that maybe someone will go above themselves and help out in the midst of trial. Don't get me wrong here...I am not ready to sell the farm and live in a place called the "warzone" like this dude was BUT, I am saying this..."WHAT IF ALONG WITH OUR CHURCH SERVICE PARKING LOTS, FILLED WITH BMW's AND HUMMERS, WE TOOK THOSE PEOPLE, AND REACHED OUT TO THE PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP THE MOST!!???
I have been reading a book called "Jim and Casper go to Church" Jim (a pastor) and Casper (an Atheist) go to 12 churches, mostly of the MEGA variety and Casper gives his unadulterated opinion. The biggest one is that he sees very little call to action among the churches. To him...we just put on a well produced show (that follow the same basic form even if the function looks different) , ask for money and tell people how to get to heaven! Not much of what Pastor Jim said would have changed his mind and to his credit he didn't try. He just wanted his thoughts on paper. The book is pretty amazing. I was thinking this...
What if we did things for the community that even Atheists and Non-followers of Christ could not look at and deny that we are IF NOTHING ELSE....difference makers! Things that they would love to be a part of. What we miss sometimes in our cocoons is that these people are not haters of all things good! They just don't share the same beliefs as we do but they do want to see people who struggle and need help find it. Sometime more than we do! A good friend of mine reminded me of a quote by Rob Bell in "Velvet Elvis" that says "Why blame the dark for being dark? It is far more helpful to ask why the light isn't as bright as it should be" We tend to spend more time out judging and blasting the world for being the way it is instead of loving people where they are! That is what I feel Christ did. He went in to those who were looking for some glimmer of hope and cared for them, encouraged them, healed them, CHANGED THEM WITH LOVE!
I am going to wrap up for tonight but I challenge us with this...what if we stopped trying to just get people into our churches, and actually went out and showed them what a difference Christ and God are making in our lives RIGHT NOW and how he can do the same for them. Showing them what my friend calls LIFE. This, LIFE, is the "abundant" kind of John 10:10. Do something radical for someone and ask for nothing in return. Hang out with the people you know who are not God Followers and don't have any agenda EXCEPT to make a friend. Stop judging and start loving. Then they might stop looking at us as phonies and ask us what is the difference. What do you guys think? Can we make a difference with these ideas? What are your ideas?
Talk to you soon
jw

Welcome!

Hello there!
This is a blog open to all who wish to participate. It is part personal, part exploratory, all participatory! Christian, non-christian, non-believer I don't care. I want a real melting pot of contribution for discussion. I hope you all feel welcome even though much of the discussion will be God or church related. I want your opinions on the things we say here too! You see, I have really found that lately God is working on me in the area of church. I am a worship leader as a part timer. A sales guy, husband, dad golfer extraordinaire! I am wondering if we are making a difference? Is what we do on Sunday mornings really bringing life change? When we say "come as you are" do we really mean that other than the kind of clothes you have on? When is the last time you heard someone lay out their problems in church and the news of it not beat them out the door? I am a "contemporary guy". GenX 'er. Or maybe on the front end of it (I am 31). Which probably means I think I am cooler than I am. That younger people take pity on me and older people think I need to grow up and stop wearing ratty jeans and tee shirts as my business casual attire! This is the beginning of what X-ALT is. I want to exalt God in all I do. This generation is different. Full of Gen X'ers like me, older and younger people looking for something different from life and in US! This world is full of ALTernative life styles and alternative needs. Are we as a church giving ALTernative church experiences other than what they grew up and ran away from? In certain cases yes, but for the majority, they see the same old thing wrapped up in different "clothes" or settings. You will find that I love all the new trends and technology of church but I want to see what else we can do with these things to reach people. Are these things alone reaching people or is there something more we need to do? Are relationships being lost and devalued? Let's live a bit together and see if we can be revolutionary in our world and in our church! Talk to you soon
jw