Last night went well at Lipscomb. It was fun to have the ZOE folks back together. (Peter, Jeff did a great job filling in for you--but we always miss you!) I was surprised at how engaged people were last night. I really, really enjoyed it. Here are a couple of pictures.
I had lunch with JV today at this hilarious place called the "White Trash Cafe".
The hostess wore a bouffant blonde wig with big pink rollers and tied up with toilet paper. She was an older lady who had the attitude to go along with the costume. There were all sorts of tacky things on the wall (all for sale, no less) and they displayed a T-shirt at the front that was also for sale that said something like, "If you make fun of this T-shirt I'll slash the tires on your house". I decided I might need one of those. (don't worry, honey, my better judgment won out today.)
I've been in discussions all day long with people about the state of "church". When will we ever be what we're supposed to be? I guess my own personal answer to that is the church is made up of individuals and we can't expect something from the corporate body that we aren't doing ourselves. Preston Shipp and I talked this afternoon about this very thing. We agreed to help each other look for ways to get our hands dirty. I'm sick of talk, aren't you? We put way too much emphasis on that Sunday morning hour. I'd rather spend my energy trying to figure out how to engage the world with the other 98.9% of my time and life. Maybe then, if we all started helping each other do that, we'd see a change in the corporate church. I dunno.
God, help us be a light. Forgive me for being so unmoved and so stubborn. Please open my eyes to the world around me.
Friday, July 08, 2005
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7 comments:
You SOO read my mind. I am SICK of all the talk. I do not live in TN, but our church is driving my crazy with all it's talk about how we need to do this and how we need to do that. Just live it, OK?? Please SHOW me what your talking about. I'm tired of it being shoved down my throat! I know He calls us to be uncomfortable and I'm ready for that...but I'm tired of being told the church is doing nothing right because it's done so much good for me.
Amen Brandon. I pray we can meet people with the love of Christ the rest of the week as evidence of what we are saying isn't just talk. Thanks for those words.
This is a day late and in response to Tony's comment, but if anyone is interested in hearing a longer version of Elizabeth's story (the Lipscomb student featured in today's newspaper), my sister and I both posted an email she wrote:
http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=MaidenAlyssa
tiffsniff.blogspot.com
I reccomend my sister's--the second one--because she's rather eloquent and I tend to think her posts are awesome, but each one has her story. God bless.
Okay, sorry, actually, at second glance it isn't really a longer version of the actual story as much as it's her thoughts about what happened. Anyway...
Brandon, a different and maybe Randy Harris type of take on the Chucrh.
The Church is currently what is suppossed to be: messy, flawed, struggling, but still seeking God. That is what happens when it is made up of humans. The important benchmark for me is not if we are doing things right, because which human determines what right is? The important benchmark is are we improving; are we just a little bit better than yesterday?
I think we are.
Tony
Yeah, Tony!!!
Great to see your thought process on the state of the church. Keep wrestling with it, brother -- chances are, if you have uneasy feelings about certain aspects, you may be right!
As for the emphasis on the Sunday morning hour, AMEN! I'm glad you brought it up, though, since a lot of your time (I assume) is spent preparing for that hour. But "being church" is way different (and closer to God's intention) than simply "doing church" once a week. Thanks for your thoughts, Brandon.
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