i'm skateboarding a lot and today i had two experiences that juxtaposed the worlds I live in. On the one hand, i'm have a serious Jesus fixation. I love Him more and more... On the other hand, i'm embarrassed at how so much serious BS is passed off as His trip... and i want to please Him and share His love with all my friends...

On the other hand, i live in this world where real friends are few and far between, and there are all kinds of things out there trying to get us to destroy ourselves and each other in a big mayhem party... and i have to speak into and listen to that world on this journey. and i have to keep it real... i am not a church christian... i'm a world walking christian... and that means that keeping it real and being painfully honest with J. is more important to me than anyone's opinion... but that doesn't keep people i respect from having the power to really hurt me... and people i don't respect, too... pain hurts and words have huge power...



blahblah, here's the experience:



first, i went to a skateshop after two or three hours kicking the heck out of myself at a local skatepark. they had a video on and it had awesome skateboarding on it... then there was this really long segment with a candle lit and the words "dedicated... to...the...Lord..." scrolling to soft music. then "...just kidding" with an upside down cross...

the other guys watching explained to each other that it was a spoof on one of the christian skaters who always includes what they called "god shit" in his video clips...



then, i got home and got sent to Kroger just around the corner from my house for a loaf of bread.

outside Kroger there was a team of two families passing out donuts. donuts before i shop for groceries? glazed ones with greasy sugar and all... good thing they were passing out napkins! (why not gum, or soda, or wrench sets?... or just some money for my groceries?... or maybe a backrub or foot massage?)

anyway i scarfed my donut while i hobbled around the aisles at about .05mph (remember, i skated today and i'm almost 31 and it's a bit much on the joints) and i read the card they gave me with the donut.

it was all about their church that they were starting in a school nearby and "please dress casually" and "professional childcare" available and all that...



...then i read the thing that caught my attention. "a New United Methodist Church"



so when i went out i asked the guy who gave me the donut what an underlined "new" meant, whether it was a chronological thing, or in reference to the nature of the kind of church it was going to be... the guy (who turned out to be the pastor) said it WAS about the kind of church, and i said, "so it won't be crappy and dysfunctional like all the others?"

and he said, Yes, or something like, yeah i know what you mean...



So we talked about it and he said some stuff and i wrote him this email: the names are changed to protect reps and stuff...



here's the email:

hi k,



thanks for the minutes outside Kroger...



i'm not sure that this conversation will be easy, but when you put yourself out on the street like that, you're asking for it.



i think i need to let you into the question a bit more. i guess my question could be phrased:



"what is the difference between 'a New' UMC and the 'old' kind?" because i'm intimately acquainted with the old kind, having worked the same job, hired for the same reasons, trying to walk out the same call, in three successive churches and i encountered the same dynamics in all three churches...



they were in orlando, FL, Western KY, and Loveland.



not to mention all the friends i have who have encountered the same dynamics from california to NY!



and then you said something that sounded to me like:



"well that's how churches are. wherever you get a lot of people, you get their disfunction..."



and i said something like,

"well, that's kinda scary and outrageous, especially when you think of Jesus..."



and that little interaction made me wonder if maybe "the park" might bein danger of ending up like all the other lukewarm churches around who give Jesus such a bad name...



just today i heard His name mocked because of the way churches are so worldly, weak and compromised... the young people i'm praying for call talk of Jesus, "God Shit" when they hear it...



d. got me to work with him after two bad experiences because his heart for the lost is as big as a barn. but his will to fight wasn't, and my family paid a high price.



are you ready to fight?



i won't be surprised if you don't answer such an inflammatory email. i respect that you carry a heavy load as a pastor and that you may feel wounded by my words...



i just can't keep my big mouth shut because nobody's speaking up for the cause of the lost... you see, when we lead people in the ways of the Lord and fight the good fight, the world can see that Jesus is real...





so that was the interaction. and i put this on this blog because i think it's important to express and put this stuff out in the open. i feel love for churches and church people. Jesus loves his people who meet in so many pointy buildings. but i know that it's not cool that they live in such a different manner than the love described in the good book...

i also feel love for people who hate god. i think they're the most important people in the world... Jesus was their friend. and they thought he was jam... i want to be their friend, even if they flay me and hoist me...