Monday, December 5, 2005
Zach responds to Cassi
Cassi, I never mentioned crossroads on my xanga...when i mentioned 'rich churches' i meant many churches...probably including crossroads. i dont question the motives of the people at Crossroads...I optimistically think...that the people at Crossroads are just dying to be challenged to follow Christ..but the most they are challenged to is the 'risk' of new building campaign...or give turkeys away. you mentioned the risk taking at crossroads...i dont see much risk in building campaigns...whether its an expansion or a building in Africa. just b/c the new building is big...doesnt mean that it was more risky. what is risky is sellin what we have..and joining the despised and rejected, the poor. i pray that Citylink doesnt get built. first, b/c Brian T. didnt work with any local church or other leaders in the West End...this was evident by how the meeting went with that community a couple Mondays ago.more importantly b/c if..homeless people get helped...it will justify many of the crossroad peeps continued seperation from the poor. and we will again miss the point...WE are supposed to be changed by our interaction with the poor! i dont want to see another place get built that helps the poor but keeps the rich and poor apart. thats charity, not christianity.We need to build a center in Blue Ash or Kenwood...to help solve this wealth problem...for rich people to come and hear the Gospel. that says...'no the poor will enter AHEAD of you into the Kingdom, you are the ones who need help, a center built. AND your wealth can very well keep you out of the KIngdom! your money and wealth is dangerous! sell what you have, give it to the poor, and join this revolution.'thats all i have to say about that...much love cassi
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yes, thats right...i am responding to my own comment...i left something out.
ReplyDeleteit is my belief that the peeps of crossroads would help the poor if they knew them. if the peeps of crossroads met our neighbors... they would do the same as we do.
but we have to ask? wasnt the civil rights act signed in '65? y is our country (AND THE CHURCH) so segegrated? not just racially but economically?
why is are the mega-churches (and churches in the city and burbs) full of people who look alike, have the same jobs, and are of the same economic status...sure there are outliers...but most churches (including those in the inner cities) look like social clubs.
I am coming to believe...Church is at its best when people of differnt cultures and backgrounds gather to worship and serve Jesus...i guess what i am saying is model the Kingdom that is soon to come (rev. 7).
we have got to find a way to stop this wealth problem...its THIS problem that causes poverty...not the other way around. We have got to build a 'Citylink' that will address wealth..i think the best remedy for the problem of riches is the gospel...
And we have got to create truely alternative communities...where people from all different backgrounds live...
-zach
I'd like to tell Cassi, "Sorry". I'm sorry that the posts and comments around your sharing have felt harsh.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to say it to all who read these things adn think, "what a bunch of harsh, hard-headed, critical hypocrites".
Why do all these christians disagree so much?
I'm sorry folks. I wish it weren't this way. You've stepped into a conversation between members of a family. A family that is Fathered by God and full of fools...
I'm sorry that we deliver bad news, too. I'd much rather be employed in more comforting ways. I'd rather be back in the matrix.
I'm sorry to all who come looking for love and find this critique another pocket of danger...
this is the family, though. We're at the table, together, hashing out how to honor our father... we're not telling each other, "You're dead to me". we're telling each other, "be reconciled to God." the kingdom is near! Let's change our lifestyles! Toward Jesus Himself...
so, you see? no matter how "nice" or "kind" we try to seem to all of you, there's no escaping the turn toward the message that I believe is the Good News: that we should all abandon ourselves to a reckless renunciation of this world ,from the heart, and turn our lives fully, in increasing measure, to be styled in the ways of the life described in Scripture...
When it comes to discussions of Big Church/Little Church, size doesn't matter. What matters is lifting up lifestyle that doesn't conform to the gospel. Ouch...
don't slip in the sacred cow blood, there...
how do you want yours cooked?
so I start with an apology and just set to digging deeper...
ZACH WROTE: it is my belief that the peeps of crossroads would help the poor if they knew them.
ReplyDeleteLEW WRITES:
i think we all know that the peeps of crossroads, at least some of them, would say, "but we do know the poor! I [do/did this/that], and I [was involved in/volunteered at/led this/that program]."
but it has to be said that there are folks at crossroads who may have real, daily, intimate friendships with poor people, or with the seriously marginalized, handicapped, post abortion, disadvantaged...
there may be those there whose lives are characterized by behaviors that exemplify the gritty, daily association with the least adn the less that the scriptures hold us accountable to in Matt. 25...
to them, I'd like to say, "sorry", if what Zach is hurting your feelings... Your Gospel-inspired lives are teaching us... We are sorry for afflicting anyone with an undue sense of guilt...
there are certainly those there, and at every large church, who "know the poor"...
they tend to become noisy advocates, labeled judgmental and discontented... they're never happy, and when the pastor asks, "did we have fun", they don't roar with applause over the death of religion.
They bow their heads in mourning, loneliness and dread at the Day of the Lord, because in Isaiah and Amos, for a start, our meetings stand condemned by our neglect of the cause of the poor.
Cassi, ANYONE, please take up the cause of thepoor. Please defend them from accusations that it's all their fault, or that they're irresponsible, or that it's a hopeless cause...
please don't unplug from this message because it indicts the values you live by. It indicts the values I live by, first. I am not here saying this because I'm somehow smart.
It's because I HEAR. It's because I'm haunted. Haunted by a voice that is so loud in the scripture and so soft in the pulpits!
color me a conspiracy theorist, but i think there's a lot wrong, in the midst of this... it smacks of mall, and 'merica more than of the cross and the ancient roads...
and i'm undone, equally, since all i ever wanted was to be a youth or young adult guy in just such a marketplace...
ZACH WRITES:
ReplyDeleteCassi, I never mentioned crossroads on my xanga...when i mentioned 'rich churches' i meant many churches...probably including crossroads.
LEW WRITES:
yeah, but i think that i need to take responsibility here for the things i have said that are critical of Crossroads, because I've said a lot...
i have gotten to know some of the guys from over there better over the last month adn I've been excited at the possibility of helping them to connect in real ways with Jesus, among the poor...
the guys i met have a desire to do what is right.
but i really stand behind/under my statements about crossroads that you'll find here. I have no problem with that, because if i were there/them, i'd want a brother like Lew to call to me.
this isn't just bashing. it's a voice from scriptures that is presenting, and re-presenting, JESUS to the church. He has been marginalized at Crossroads, no matter how vibrant the volunteer base is...no matter how "risky" the campaigns are...
now, that doesn't mean a whole lot of things. It doesn't mean, "they're damned" or that "there's no hope for them" or that "we're right and they're wrong"...
we are all in this thing TOGETHER. I am Them. That is us! We are the body. That's why all the voice on this stuff...
please don't be put off by the "tone". There's no "nice" way to say this...
And it is chocked full of hope, promise, and good news... ...