Nothing Fancy

Ok so this blog is not fancy. I don't even take time to add cool fonts or tags or what not. Partly because I am too lazy to learn how and partly because I just want to come on here, write and be done. I have a rather impatient attitude with some kinds of technology. I love blogs and such but I don't take time to link articles or show pictures on this blog. Maybe one day I will.

So I was thinking about this today. About how impatient we can be. Or maybe its we get tired of waiting for something to happen that we wish was going to happen or we have been promised would happen but never happens because the genesis of this 'happening' lost focus on the what should happen and instead focus on something that should not be happening and forget that some people get tired of waiting for something to happen (I know I know that was a crazy sentence. But give me a break I just read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and I guess some of it rubbed off on me). My point is I get impatient waiting for things to change when it is so clear to ME that they should change. Then I get impatient with those people that don't think things should change because I'm like, 'how could you not see that this needs to change'. I bet you wish you knew what I was talking about exactly because I am talking about something specific. But alas I am not going to say. i will just keep rambling on.

It does have to do with churches and I am on a bit of a 'writing about church trip' right now. But what I am thinking is that I am not sure that fancy makes for good church experience. What I am saying is that I would rather be relevant than fancy. I would rather be authentic rather than holier-than-though. I would rather be theologically sound than numerically large but empty. That last one stings a bit because it is a shift in thinking for me. A shift that I didn't think I even needed to make.

I was talking with some people the other day about passing out salvation tracks and such. I did that when I was a teen. It didn't work at all for me. Maybe I was not a good salesman or not dedicated enough. Not sure. I don't think they work now but people still think they do. I have done door knocking too and hated it. I know people that love that and think it is what we should, as Christians, be doing. I don't think so. I compare both these 'techniques' to trying to take a tire off with a pair of pliers and a jackhammer. You get the tire off but its painful and you can't use the car afterward.

Why am I talking about this? I think our churches are still trying to 'hand out tracks' or 'door knock' in a world that doesn't even know who their neighbors are. It is such a stupid thing to do. What about this; just be nice to people. Nothing fancy. Just talk to people like you actually like them or better yet like you actually love God. I think most growth techniques of yester-year are stupid because they are forced and uncomfortable and too forceful. But we do the same stupid things now. WE have friends days where we ask for our members to invite their friends but how many of our members even have non-Christian friends ( I hate that term but can't think of another one--actually Leonard Sweet calls non-believers normal while we are the freaks. I kind of like that). I wonder how much time is spent on trying to convert Christians to other denominational churches vs. actually sharing the gospel with people that haven't heard it, don't know it, or are in real need of it? That would be an interesting survey.

We are behind the times when it comes to being relevant in this world and we are behind the times when it comes to really thinking and living theologically sound lives so that when normal people see us they wonder why we are different. Nothing fancy just God-revealing, God-bearing lives.