an oldie.

I wrote this a while ago now... but I thought I would post it so that we all, the church, (and when I say church, I mean church universal, the body of Christ, I am not trying to point fingers at any one person or singular church in my community or any other) might be challenged to think twice about everyday stuff we encounter as believers....Feel free to disagree with me. 

This weekend, I went with Zach to a youth conference in Marshfield, WI where the Substance worship band played. I want to make certain that it is understood that I don't think that cooperate worship is unnecessary. I definitely think that it is. It was fun to see so many talented musicians working hard at a high standard of excellence, and rock out while worshipping God with all of their hearts. It was also cool to see so many youth come (who I hope were authentically desperate for God) make commitments to make changes in their lives. I also very much enjoyed getting to know a few people we traveled with on a deeper level, since I don't always have time to have those conversations in passing on a Sunday morning. But while I sat there and listened to the speaker and watched all of the youth and leaders intently listening, and hooting and and hollering on cue to the emotional highs of the evening, I couldn't help but starting to think again about how silly it can be sometimes.  Instead of going on for pages and pages (which I think I could do easily), I want to highlight some things that I have been thinking about and praying about a lot over the course of the last year, and especially in the past few months. 

In the past couple of years, I have watched a few films that have begun to portray the modern Christian-american- evangelical-Church as a sort of theatrical mockery. While many Christians are probably offended by this sort of portrayal (since we all know this is not REALLY who we want to be), I find it interesting to see who we are to the outsiders. What I see portrayed is huge gatherings of people who would like to act excited about their faith, but in real life, have real issues and real problems that they are not always authentic about with the people they are "trying to save." They put together church services that are big and loud and showcase a "cool" version of our faith-- with upbeat pastors and music-- (how do I say this without offending someone?) music that sometimes really isn't that great. I think a lot of non-christians think that we are being brainwashed into our faiths because we are comfortable. Are we honestly and passionately seeking the Truth on our own? Are we being genuine with our friends and family? Are we real about STILL needing God's grace in our lives every single day? Do we act like it? Are we always going back to Him in our desperation instead of always reaching that point again where we become self-sufficient? What if the church was like it was in Acts-- people living in community together, sharing everything that they had, giving everything away of theirs until every need was met? What if our small groups were always personable enough that we could have genuine accountability and prayer support? Mostly, I have been thinking about how much people talk about stuff like that all of the time. Churches talk about stuff like that all of the time. And we are the same. We always keep things the way that they are-- big congregations, small groups that can lack intimate friendships, sermons that are a spiritually tailored to make you think but not necessarily do, and hyped up worship that feels the same as a rock show.  Church "in the box", if you will, no matter how "outside of the box" you try to be.  Don't get me wrong. I know there are reasons why church is the way that it is... but who said that it needed to stay that way always?

Perhaps one of the most comical things about this to me is that we somehow think that our style of evangelism is actually going to reach someone. I know that sounds really harsh, and yes, I think that God can use any and every circumstance to work in people's lives. I also think that a lot of times we are too self righteous to think that we are the ones that need change, that we are the ones that need God to speak to us and use us in ANY way that He desires. We get stuck in the mold of how we always do things. I would like to know: how we are not getting in the way of plans that God has for reaching lost people with His love, when we are so concentrated on staying the same and never changing? Here is something else that I have been thinking a lot about the irony of: Why are our outreach events held at our church? Shouldn't we be going out into our communities, stepping out of our comfort zones and building relationships with people who do not know God's love? Why do we think that handing out tracts is going to reach someone? Again, I am not saying that it cannot, but when did Jesus ever hand someone a little piece of paper with some words on it and expect that they will see God's love through that? He built relationships with people-- not just in comfortable little suburbs, but in the ghettos, and with the people that Pharisees saw as most unlovable and unclean.  I think that the great commission meant more than reaching people that WANT to come to our church, and certainly means more than going across the ocean. I have always found it ironic that we are desperate to make it to the 1040 window, and much less concerned with building relationships with our neighbors, our co-workers, and bar acquaintances. I think that world wide evangelism is definitely important. But perhaps we should start on our own turf. I have heard lately (I wish I had some sort of fact to write about here, but currently our internet is down) that people from all of the world are now concentrating on coming to the United States to evangelize here. Christians everywhere are seeing the need here for American-Christians to have an authentic desperation for God. I wish that we would stop asking people to "pray that prayer", and encourage people to walk side by side with people and demonstrate Christ's love to them in the flesh so that they will be drawn to Him, and know their need for grace as much as we have ours as they go on their journey closer to Him. In addition to evangelism likely being much more appealing when we truly level the playing field, we are also creating a stronger support system. There may not be dozens of converts at every service, but I think we will see more lasting support and authentic spiritual growth within the Body. 

Zach talked with me a lot during this past election about acting on my thinking. I had lots of ideas about reasons why we should have less government, and people just stepping up to help people out who are in need and really giving up things they want to educate people, bring people out of poverty, and conserve our planet. Zach reminded me that it can't work like that, because people don't really ever do that-- and most importantly of all-- I wasn't doing that.  As you can see, I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about what the church is doing wrong. Yet, I am still a part of the church. I am that person that attends a church that can sometimes feel like I am in a live studio audience at an Oprah show, I don't have really any close friends at church and have not made any huge strides in gaining accountability,  and I get hyped up at our worship "rock show" almost every week. I am a part of all of that. I hope that I can be a part of a movement to see some of these things in the church go in a different direction. Mostly, I hope to make changes in my life that will love people that I come into contact with, instead of just demanding that they be saved. I want to learn what it really means to be a Jesus Freak-- to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, and show them grace especially when they are undeserving of it. I want to reach out to people that are poor in spirit, and lift them up. I want to reach out to people that have needs that are unmet, and share what I have with them. I want to make changes in my life so that I am not someone who only talks about stuff like this all the time, but someone who actually does something. 

I had something else I wanted to talk about, but I think this has gone on quite long enough. For another day...

h.

feel the burn.

ok. so i feel like i did a lot of complaining yesterday on behalf of both of us, but really, we are so blessed to be on vacation and we're doing our best to make the most of it. the main reason that we are here is because Jake and Lizzie Ladd were generous enough to give us some flight vouchers for our wedding that they didn't think that they'd be able to use. thank you friends! it's really easy to complain, so i appologize for taking the lazy approach while telling you all about our trip so far. let me try again...

as we approached the Ocean on Monday, anticipation built up inside of me to get my first glimpse of that marvelous sight. i did not get directions at all really for our trip, so we just followed signs and looked for that great body of water that appears to never end. the town of Clearwater was bigger than we thought it would be. it's still a somewhat small, cozy little beach town, but there were lot's of Spring breakers and the beach looked great but we couldn't even find a place to park. we ended up going to a different park a couple miles down the beach where it wasn't as busy. there were tons and tons of fresh shells washed up on shore, so it hurt your feet to be close to the water unless you got out a little deeper. the sand on that beach wasn't the greatest, but the waves were big by where we were, so it was fun to do a little body surfing and pretend that we were on our honeymoon again (if you know what I mean). after our time on the beach we casually headed down the shore line just checking things out. we stopped for a beer and an appetizer at a little outdoor bar and realized we were just a little ways from our condo in Indian Shores. there was an envelope waiting for us at the office, but no one was there and the "emergency number" seemed to be out of service. they did not tell us what room we were in so we split up on different floors and started trying our keys in every room; one by one. luckily about the fourth one worked. it was in interesting room. a great big bathroom and tub, but two double beds. we successfully pushed them together though so don't worry about that :) 

so our plan was to maybe have one night toward the end of our trip that we went somewhere nice to eat and just splurged. well we found ourselves starving at about 9pm on that second night and we stopped at the first place we saw: an Italian cuisine place. so I guess we got our "night out" taken care of right away. We split a delicious meal and appetizer, but with a glass of wine each, key lime pie, and a cappucino it got expensive awfully fast. I think we talked about how we are going to raise our kids the entire time (thanks to Hope... just kidding). don't worry (or get too excited) though; this was just for fun (as of now anyway...)

Our second day on the beach was pretty much a disaster, but we are trying to be as creative and upbeat as possible to not let it ruin our trip. I currently have the worst sunburn in the history of Florida. well, my history in Florida I guess. I haven't decided to go to the hospital yet (ok, it 's probably not quite that bad), but last night I was tempted as I failed to try to spend the night in the bath tub. we both got too much sun. Hope must have missed a spot or forgot to re-apply sunscreen after swimming, but I totally and confidently refused sun-block altogether; being the tough man that I am... now I've been whining like a little girl ever since. thankfully the past two days have been kind of cloudy and there has been a tennis tournament in Miami that we've been watching on tv. we didn't really expect this trip to consist of walking around our air-conditioned condo naked; constantly spraying Aloe on eachother, and laying face-down on the bed watching tennis while swapping out chilled, wet towels to place on our backs every few minutes. I think that I slept for about one hour last night. 

we spent the last two nights in a room with a kitchen, so we have decided to "dine in" for the rest of the trip. we had rotissurie chicken, potatoe salad, beans and rolls the first night. we invented an interesting "sandwich bar" for lunch yesterday, and Hope made a salad while I made a frozen pizza and fried potatoes last night. AND we've had delicious smoothies, coffee, fruit and toast for breakfast the past two mornings. 

the beach right across the street from us does not have the greatest sand or the biggest waves, but it is close, quiet and very relaxing to just go for walks, take pictures and sit and talk. we found a nice little coffee shop to blog at and the lattes are pretty good. 

today we're going to try to find some thrift stores, maybe a disc golf park, and hopefully go back near Clearwater beach to catch some big waves and soft sand one more time before we head back to Orlando for one night and take off for home earlier afternoon tomorrow. 

not having an mp3 hookup in our car to play the ipod led to us buying a couple of CD's at Best Buy when we first got here. one of there songs keeps playing in our heads this week, and we hum it as we think of each other and about our God: "no amount of coffee, no amount of crying. no amount of whiskey, no amount of wine. no, nothing else will do. i gotta have you..." (the weepies). 

z&h

In a state of sunshine?

After enjoying a Sunday morning of Coffee/brunch with the Kinley's (real church) and Disc Golf with Kevin while the wives talked, Hope and I were fortunate enough to set out on our second tropical adventure in six months (almost exactly) since being husband and wife. Kevin and Loran were kind enough to drive us to the airport (real friends :) and we left MN at about 4pm in hopes of escaping some of the routine of our daily lives and the long, deceiving winters of the mid-west. After much debate about what the ideal Florida trip would look like, we settled on an itinerary we thought would be a good combination of simple, relaxing, adventerous and affordable. Although we have had lots of fun so far, and we really have no right to complain (we're in Florida on the beach for crying out loud!), we have managed to defy most of the criteria that we aimed to accomplish in this trip. 

For starters, our plane was delayed about an hour while we waited on a over-sold flight of antsy children who could not wait to see Micky and Goofy for the first time. When we got to Orlando, I, being the spontaneous genius that I am, forgot which car rental company I had made a reservation with. To make a long story short, the 8pm arrival at our condo turned into a near midnight arrival that was made up of a variety of pretty classic travel mishaps that left us both more frustrated than relaxed. Hope stayed a lot more calm than I did; good thing that I married a woman like her :) Once we got the resort peeps to let us into to the outdoor pool and hot tub after hours, we loosened up again and started to enjoy ourselves. Our 10a.m. checkout was part of the big disappointment of being delayed a few hours, but it also really helped that we got that extended to noon; which thankfully allowed us to use the coffee maker and jacuzzi. 

Orlando was a pretty big and busy city that we were glad to get out of as we drove toward the Gulf Coast the next afternoon...

...the coffee shop with wifi is closing so... to be continued...

z&h