I heard this quote today: "Convince me that the movement Jesus began is more important than the institution people began." God, I wish churches would wake up and actually teach people that being a follower of Jesus is actually possible without judgment, moralization, or condemnation. The institutional church has given God a black eye and spit in his face because of course, people are the real gate keepers, right? What pisses me off is that we suck at being the church! That is, the church that Acts 2 speaks of...the kind of church that gives itself away to the poor, that actually loves people for who they are, that demands justice be voiced for those in poverty, or homelessness. This is the church that God dreams would be a reality for all people. I love John 3:16...it's a great verse, but I prefer the one after it. John 3:17 says, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him." If that's the case, why does the church (uh, why do "Christians") spend so much time then, condemning the world if Jesus came to save it?

I have friends who want nothing to do with the church, but they're curious about Jesus. The same goes for most younger generations...they consider themselves to be spiritual, but not religious. I would say I am the same way. I gag at the term religious, or religion. Too much baggage comes along with those terms. I wish the church would redefine itself into something that would change lives permanently. Instead, the prized commodity of "time" defines people's lives and are guarding it with their attention, commitment, and disassociation. People would rather come to church when it's convenient instead of it being a time of value and relevance in which their lives are built and restored in a constant process of being open to what they just might learn. People, esp. Baby Boomers on down, are incredibly disassociated from the church because the church has become lazy and dependant upon a false sense of stability. People want to know that their time will matter. Makes me sad... But, then again, the church being lazy and ignorant of its target audience, does not and chooses not to be relevant nor accepting of anything that remotely smells of "change." People are not going to come to church if the church is not going to offer people the tools, the knowledge, the skills and methods, THE COMMUNITY, in which their time will be less of a concern, but where their lives will be transformed into the kind of life that follows Jesus because it's the best and beautiful life they could have. Time is not so guarded when it is shaped by this life change we call being a student of the Rabbi.

If churches were smart, they would pray that God would do great things among them...that they expect God to do great things among them. Maybe it's a good thing for a church to be more concerned about the condition of its people than the condition of the institution. If people are hurting, address it. If people are unsure about committing to this Jesus, love them anyway and walk with them until they decide to commit. If people are uncaring about anything Jesus taught, teach them and expect God to open eyes and heart with his prying hands! See, I am convinced that hope is always possible for anyone. I know that some of my closest friends do not see any relevance or value in the church for them. I am sorry that I represent that corporate definition that hurts them. At the same time, I will live and die believing that hope is always possible for people to find their way to a church that loves them and accepts them for who they are because that's the way of relating to people Jesus put into practice.

Someone I was chatting with today told me he was tired of the institutional church and all of its unfocused bullshit. I agreed. He then proceeded to almost give me a prophetic acclamation. He told me that I should plant a church, because I have a passion for sticking my middle finger in the institutionalized church's smoothed over, fake smiling face...this face that does not care about people and cares about itself. Maybe some day... I do know one thing. I would leave the ELCA and not look back. Why? Because we are an aging church, a hemorrhaging church, and a lazy church. I have too much passion and inner-light than to allow the church to kill it slowly and take life from me. I have too much love for people and the condition of their hearts than the church's intolerance of people unlike them. God, I pray that you save your Son's church from those who would suck it dry of the life you want to bless it. Oh yeah, by the way, do you think you could send another flood, but this time, could you just take out all the churches and their national offices... Do you think that would help start your Son's church all over?

Two quotes from two very different people, but on the same page about the institutional church:

From the great deist, Thomas Paine in his work The Age Of Reason written in 1794! "All national institutions of churches...appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

From the great self-professed atheist Marilyn Manson in his catchy little tune, "The Beautiful People"
It's not your fault that your always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It's all relative to the size of your steeple
You can't see the forest for the trees
You can't smell
your own shit on your knees...

More later...