Embarrassed By the Church

Some day I'm going to write a book about all the embarrassing things that, in my opinion, the church does. One easy example would be people protesting at alternative lifestyle rallies and holding "Turn or Burn" signs. Many other things could also be added to the list. Things like the youth group/mime troupe that we saw performing on the boardwalk this summer at Virginia Beach. Who is going to stop and watch them mime God's love? What about the church in Florida recently where the choir continued to sing when the minister got up to preach. He ended up calling the police to have them removed for trespassing because they wouldn't stop singing. It seems that he wants to give $100,000 of their $360,000 insurance settlement to another church that was also damaged by one of the recent hurricanes. The people in the choir want all the money for their church, so they sang so the minister couldn't speak. When he was interviewed, the minister said, "we are still preaching God's word." Really? Are there not more effective ways of being and sharing God's Kingdom? Or, the newest thing I've seen is Jesus Poker Chips. Maybe we should use them when we get play poker with our friends. Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking--like the guy I saw a couple of months ago pulling out of a church parking lot after service in a Dodge Viper. Would Jesus drive/own a Dodge Viper?

I really think we as the church all to often miss the point. I think there are better things we can be doing with our time, money, and energy. What if we were to go to the Pride rallies and hand out cold drinks or provide snacks because of God's love? What if we as the church could quit fighting amongst ourselves and focus on loving the communities around us regardless of how pagan they are? What if we were to actually think theologically about our actions and possessions? Would our living change? Would our perception of the outside world change?

Probably a better question that we need to start with is who does God want us to be? How does he want us to act? How are we shaping our lives to die to ourselves and put on Christ? Then we should look at the "good news"? What is it that God actually wants us to share? Yes, these are hard questions to ask and we'll have to look for answers and do much reflection. But, if we are going to be God's people, we need to BE God's people in everything and share the "good news" that Jesus had for the world he came to. In doing so, we will probably not miss the point as much as we do now. . . nor be as embarrassing.