Why I Don't Go to Church Anymore

This article is for anyone out there that considers "grubbykupp" or "Just Some Jesus People" their church.

First of all, there is almost no such thing as "grubbykupp". That's just a word that we got years back that said, "you can only be loved by me as who you actually are, with wounds and lack and sin and all the mess of who you are, so be the cup and get filled and washed and just go go go and walk with Me!" Jesus seemed to be saying...

I got that word prophetically when I preached Jeremiah 31 about the New Covenant at a Methodist Church in Loveland OH in 2001 or 2000 or something. They've got the tape... Judy came up to me after and said she was getting that word and that the Lord was calling us to be vessels, as we were, with the good news of Jesus, the lover of sinners... Jesus, loving us and telling us to tell you he loves you... what? so simple, yet far too rare...

and we're a mess and he loves us...

But grubbykupp isn't a "thing", really. the Thing is JESUS! He really does love you, now, today, as you are, and he's calling you out of your guilt and to know the indescribable Father-Love of Abba... What? so simple... soooo... simple...

And "Just Some Jesus People" is a little trick i play on people who need a label in order to start a friendship. I mean, look at that... enjoy...

But the linked article is goood. For anyone there who thinks that by meeting together or living together, or whatevs, that they are "joining a church" or a "community"... you joined the only church there ever has been when you first realized that the Someone you need is Jesus! all those years of loneliness and brokenness and here's Jesus, arms open, loving you and speaking HIMSELF as the final message on how God feels about you.

You know what else?
any time you joined a church before?
No you didn't.
Some of the people at the meetings may have been the church, but they weren't behaving in a full understanding of the true definition of church--the reality of church (forget just defining it: it's there to LIVE IN)
that wasn't behaving like what Jesus calls a church, if you had to join it like that...
sorry, dude.
the church Jesus started doesn't name itself after itself and do like that. seriously... what? Does that indict something dear to you? something you may have confused for something else??? hope so.

I really do.
I'm not here to make you comfortable if you've set your hope on some wack imitation of the reality of the gifts of God. God has LOVED US and has given us such immense GRACE, and the imitation stuff kinda gets stinky! really.

God is hardly who we have imagined him to be... He is in LOVE with you.

Now go read the book of Hosea. Go. Read it. Why did God put that in there? What the heck is that? Yeah. Goood. be perplexed now. and go with that...

Winter Vine Pruning

sam and i are at the dinner table this morning, enjoying a cup of coffee and talking about the book of John, chapter 15. I pulled up this clip of pruning. I don't understand a lot of what he's talking about, but the point is that the guy knows what he's doing, just like Our Father knows what He's doing when he gets down to pruning us... and that's good news.

Seth's First Day of First Grade

Just dropped seth off at first grade... I had a great first grade year, apart from the bathroom door getting opened on me, resulting in an aversion to any bathroom but home for 15 years... it shattered my world...
...but i got over that through airline travel. I go at least once every three hours while i'm on a plane. It's a matter of principle. If i pay that much to sit, cramped up there, I'm gonna stretch out and use that toilet at least twice on the way to Europe... Across America I average once on the route to California, but NY is too close. I drive that.

Still haven't gotten into the rest areas on the highways... too much bad press. But Cracker Barrel is a good place to lose weight, if you bring sanitary wipes and stuff to clean before you use...

people who know me well get a lot of laughs out of the lengths i go to in order to "feel at home", while traveling...

But I'm sure Seth's first grade experience will be cool. really.

My New Favorite Band of all time (to whom I can barely stand to listen)

i discovered Danielson Famile in 1998. They remained a fave, with "rubbernecker". I got a ton of their stuff this year from david, along with sufjan, half-handed cloud, and now page france... (those were bands and artists)

so there. enjoy.

For friends like david (click for a real treat)

Airport Pickups

Yesterday Morning, i picked up one student (Ukranian) and this morning I busted tail to try to register our Marcelo at his high school and busted more tail to get to the airport by 10am to pick up 6 at once, with Judy. Between our two cars we got the whole crew home and out to lunch. That's a lotta luggage, folks... Now the kiddos are all crashing in local, temporary homes and I'm gonna catch a nap...

Tomorrow we start "class"--a whirlwind tour of sites, immersion in culture, and language instruction. Ten days later, we'll be done, working almost 12 hours a day together... breakfast, lunch and dinner...

This is one of the best and most difficult times of my year. Each day unfolds graciously, if not gracefully, and it always "works". The students really get oriented and onto the right foot.

Till tomorrow...

Buried

some of you know that I spent eight days driving around New York, visiting relatives with Seth, my six-year-old.
I'm back now.
thrown immediately into my amazing yearly two-week course, teaching seven students from Central Asia. I do it each year and it is intense and amazing...
so I'm buried...

Before this, I have been working on skatepark stuff with Suburban Rails, and really really wondering in a good way about the ministry life I have in the church... Not doubtful wondering, but more "wonderful" wondering...

I'm escaping the jaws of being a Pharisee, but I have lost my taste for almost everything that calls itself "Christian" in the process... That danged Pharisee thing is like this shark attack I saw the other day on tv. gnarly...

...which brings me to something that i have thought about a lot... surfing is really really dangerous and awesome and someone only gets good at it if they really love it. That's why we all respect the surfers...

Here is a shark attack to watch...