Ah, to be a "Christian"

I was watching the new NBC show by Conan O'Brien and his ex-sidekick Andy. Andy is the star and you can download the pilot for free on i-tunes. In the pilot, there is a great joke made in passing. Andy's just started his own CPA firm and has moved into a store front in a plaza with other stores. One of the other stars of the show, who owns the video store with no customers, be-friends him and is showing him around the plaza. He says, "Don't park in front of the Christian book store. They'll tow you."

Ah, to be "one of those Christians".

My eldest daughter has a friend over this last week. The friend brings with her some of her CD's for them to maybe listen to. On the car ride to our house, after picking up her friend, Meg looks through the CD's and says, "I don't know any of these but I'm pretty sure that my mom isn't going to let me listen to this one." (It's a Brittany Spears CD with her half-naked on the cover. Also remember that these girls are 9.) The friend says, "Oh, its okay, she's a Christian." To which my daughter replies, "Just because she says she is a Christian doesn't make her one. Lot's of people say that and it doesn't make it so. If we never act like a Jesus and claim that we are Christians, it doesn't make it true."

Later my daughter received a huge hug from me.

Futurist

My amigo and compadre (and also new daddy) Josh and I were emailing a bit today. I think he was asking me some questions out of his blog post which is great, but I had not yet read. We got to talking/emailing about openness and change... here are some questions I landed on and thought I'd throw them out...

Erwin McManus calls himself a “futurist” with the understanding that he is just telling people where they are right now and because everyone (especially the church) is constantly looking at where they have been, his comments seem “futuristic”.

What would it take for us to be real and aware? Is this called relevance or something else?

What personally do we fight to do so? Corporately? Systemically?

I wonder if Jesus wasn't the perfect model of being aware and real. He was... "I AM" in flesh.

I know personally I fight fear of failure and change and vulnerability a lot.

Corporately I think we fight the urge to want to make sure we're all okay and people still really like us. I don't think that we are committed enough to one another most times to be truly honest with each other. And while this can come across as being "nice", I actually think its one of the shallowest ways to be together because it constantly avoids honesty and confrontation. It seems to me that we grow and change and come together only at that point of vulnerability and reality. But again that's scary.

Systemically I think we fight our memory as much as anything. And I also must point out that our memory ain't so great most times. We remember what we choose to celebrate or fear most and forget the rest. I'm not at all for tossing where we've come from, rather I'm all for being faithful to that by pushing ahead, just like most of them did. And by the way, a lot of people aren't going to like us for doing it. There's also a sense here where systems seek equilibrium and the things that are in the "now" somehow tip that.

God help us to faithfully proclaim what you've given us to proclaim, whether through word or flesh or both.

Great People

I've been in St. Louis since last Friday morning early. It's been a good time with our volunteer core team, but incredibly busy and intense. This project is huge and I've found myself pausing at its massive scope quite often lately. I was reminded this weekend that God has been great to me by bringing great people into my life.

Perhaps one of the greatest currencies of our time is friendship. Thanks to so many of you for making me rich!