Thursday (Fourth Day)

I took a break from writing yesterday--I'll probably take a break every now and then. There is something about learning too much and not dwelling enough on what you already know.

Reading over my posts too I frequently notice awkward phrasings and grammatically incorrect words yada yada. Part of it is my chronic tendency to write how I talk and part it has to do with writing late at night.

I woke up early this morning (having gone to be surprisingly early at 12:30) and immediately jumped up, started to make myself coffee and then jumped in the shower. Right before I turned on the hot water though I paused, got out, got dressed, turned off the coffee machine. It was the strangest thing. I looked at the clock, sure enough, it was 2:50 a.m. I subsequently went back to bed and woke up at 6:30.

I had gotten up (I normally get up around 10-11) so to accompany Jeanie Bockleman to a meeting of Recovery and Restoration church groups. There was eight (I think...) or so groups with one to two people from each group...for a total of fifteen people I think. I was by far the youngest person in the room and I was kind of humbled by all the individuals of great age and experience. One person was a Viet Nam veteran with a history of drug abuse, some other women worked with women and men (never had thought that men suffered too) who were affected by abortion, along with a couple who head up Salem's main soup kitchen and shelter. The meeting started at 7:30 and was surprisingly brief. I did feel though, that the organizers had reached their goal of connecting existing groups and resources. Apparently the group will be meeting regularly too in a few months and is expected to grow.

I was much more of an outlier in the meeting and said the least out of anybody. In my silence, two nuanced observations struck me.

First, one individual remarked jokingly that the issue central to everyone's ministry in the room was one that required great coordination and cooperation and in which Churches weren't competing.

Granted the man was joking, there was a token of seriousness and cynical reality to the remark on competition.
Churches compete over congregation sizes (and I'm sure much more that I'm unaware of.
Christian companies compete against one another for similar business.
Christian schools and colleges compete for students.
Christian bands compete for sales of CD's.

Undoubtedly I could do a whole post on the value of competition. It fosters learning and growth--two incredibly valuable characteristics for any entity invested in becoming richer, bigger and lasting longer. It also weeds out the weak, the incompetent, the unpopular and the unsuccessful. While this ensures that the "best" churches, colleges, charities bands, companies remain...my worry is that we've let Capitalism define what "best" is. One thing that I've been learning is that God chooses the most absurdly small things of this world to show His goodness. After all He did send His son as a baby, to a poor immigrant family targeted by the Government of the time, did He not?

By the way, I HIGHLY recommend you watch this 30 minute sermon by man named Oscar Muriu on the seeming nonsensical logical of our God, King of the Upside down world. Like, "Why didn't God come to Earth like the Aliens in the movie Independence Day?" kind of upside down.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love diversity, I love differences and disagreements. I even like arguments and confrontations. I love how different ministries are differently suited to reach different audiences (notice how that lingo makes you think of a advertising agency though? that's what gives me uncertainty). I also know that these Christian organizations may be significantly more involved and compassionate and much less cut-throaty than their secular counterparts...but again, with the advertising bit. I don't know. Would Jesus have had PR guy? (For now I'd say the answer is yes, and it's us. Hence feeling a little liberated to critique the methods of my colleagues, a little cut-throatish of me perhaps but purely for reasons concerning God. Which justifies and absolves me completely I'm sure.)

The other part about the competition part, is that at some point you have a bunch of choices who are all good at what they do: catching people up in what they do. Just like the material culture of America, when this happens, identities are created around these hallmark brands/organizations. People become identified by the type of Bibles they have, by the type of Church building style, worship style, preaching style etc. etc. that these identities become their own little world. People selfishly hole themselves up in what they are comfortable with.

Yes, you are reading correctly, I just pinned a huge part of the issues in the American church on American financial greed and government (the two are very hard to separate in this country). This is why I'm a politics major.

Of course it's a theory I'm still in the throes of airing out.

That's enough of the first "nuanced observations".

The second thing I noticed, concerns Jeanie and a comment she made during her turn to talk (at the very beginning everyone went around introduced themselves, their ministry and their goals for the year). She expressed a yearning to see more folks open their homes to the poor and homeless to live in (I'll write a post about her later...what she does and has done and how our lives crossed. I'm going to go hang out with her more tomorrow evening, so maybe tomorrow!).

No one really said anything. I still don't understand why the idea of bringing people into your homes is so strange and taboo. I mean, aside from the obvious fact that it's incredibly difficult--isn't that one of the biggest and best ways to show someone you care and love them? That Christ's love is so powerful that you're willing to open your own special space in this world, to a stranger? Maybe if we became friends with the poor and the homeless, it won't be so hard to invite them into our homes.

Why can't there be members of the Church competing to invite others into their homes? Such an action I feel, speaks volumes more and resonates deeper than most sermons I've ever heard in Church.




I'm ending my post now. But before I do, I'd like to remind everyone who is reading of one tragedy perpetrated by our country: the My Lai Massacre (quoted from Wikipedia source:

...was the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children, and elderly people.
Many of the victims were sexually abused, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated...While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted. He served only three years of an original life sentence, while on house arrest.

On a very different note, today the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the rights of corporations as a person. It abolished many of the restrictions placed on corporations in areas such as lobbying and campaign donations. I'm too tired to go into the ripples of this, except to say that it will significantly change the way campaigns are run and laws. Money and wealth are increasingly becoming the centerpiece of our society.

Goodnight and blessings.