Okay so this is the way it will go for me. Two blogs back to back and then a huge hiatus as I travel from Ghana to the U.S. I had six days with my buddy Andy and my spiritual mentor Al in Santa Rosa. Great time, great church...look up www.newvintagechurch.org. Things are different here. They have people in recovery coming off the street and people who own corporations in San Francisco and they all hang out together under the same roof. Lots of tatoos and lots of nice clothes and they all mix together. I met at least two people maybe more who said, "this is the first time that I've ever been to church." I don't know about you but man do I love that. I love hanging out with people who know nothing about God or church. They don't know the stuff that goes into the history. They are fresh and open and hungry. I love giving Bible illustrations and talk about relationships and I say, "Adam had...." One or two said "Eve." And then I said, "Moses had...." and most had no idea who went with Moses...Aaron. Wow, pure and simple ignorance that is not stupidity, just not knowing something.
Wouldn't you love to walk along people who know nothing about God and everything you share with them is fresh and new...you have to talk differently, say things differently. I love that. You can't speak Christianese around these people. They don't get it. The other side of that is the staleness that happens in churches where everybody is the same and you speak the same language and the word that comes to mind is redundant. I think about Christianity in most churches and it seems redundant, lacking passion, lacking diversity.
Now, let me tell you the miracle...I preached and it was pretty good in my opinion but that's not the point. We talked about "coming to the table" and my points were: 1.You don't have to come alone, 2.You don't have to get it all right before you come to the table and lastly, 3.Jesus is the chair that meets you at the table that wants to take your whole being on HIM. That was okay and I think they got it and then I said, "I want to invite everyone to the table." So I just asked the whole congregation to get up out of their seats and come up on stage and come around the table and hold hands and I prayed for them and it was one of those holy moments. Everybody came because they didn't know better and they felt safe and not condemned and they felt love in that moment.
So I'm California dreaming. Dreaming of a time when we'll begin to reach out to the lost. When was the last time you hung out with a lost person? You might find it quite interesting.
5 comments:
The Fritchman's are visiting, does Mark count?
Yes, in fact that is a great example! He epitomizes lostness in the greatest sense of the word.
Yeah, so I was a lost person earlier today and I don't think i would have been great to hang out with, probably a bit frustrating.
I heart the Mozleys!
You inspire me big daddy and I want to be like you. I'll come and see you real soon, how's a few weeks early this summer sound?
Oh Osofo, you're so good...or God is so good in/through you! I miss ya and hope to see you soon...maybe in Ghana one day. I haven't forgotten what you told me in that last village we stayed at outside Yendi (where all the people watched us sleep!)...I will come back.
Post a Comment