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The previous post were my favorite post from my blog with The World Race, a world missions adventure I was hoping to go on. Enjoy!

The Big Show

While at dinner with friends in a small group from church, someone began talking about Jentezen Franklin, pastor of Free Chapel, a large church in Gainesville where AIM is located. While at training in April we had the opportunity to attend Free Chapel on Easter Sunday.

Easter Sunday at Free Chapel was an experience. Growing up in a VERY small church I wasn't entirely prepared for the things I would see. Here's the short list:

-Buses to take people from the parking lot to the sanctuary
-Lions and Lambs (yes real ones)
-Kids on Hollywood style trolleys as angels dangling from the ceiling

As I was talking about this and what some of my first thoughts were, I said, "I just don't know, it all seemed a little like a big show to me." I was a little surprised when I heard someone say, "Well you're in America and that's what you have to do. Really you are competing with everything else that vies for peoples attention."

On the ride home I began thinking about this conversation. I was thinking about this "We need to entertain" mentality vs. the surge of twenty-something's who are returning to the more traditional form's of worship (hymns, liturgy, etc). I wonder how would Jesus react if he physically walked into one of the more "seeker friendly" services Would he react in the same manner as he did in the temple in Mark 11, or would he go up and give the pastor a big high five and tell him "Awesome job, dude." I wonder how much to we take away or nullify the Gospel of Christ in an effort put butts in pews.

Saying all that I guess I should say, I do go to a church with "contemporary" worship. In fact we are getting ready to put a show on for the community. We are bringing in a Christian blues player, Jimmie Bratcher, to play and tell his story.

So what's this about? Is this just an opportunity for me to gripe and complain about the flaws I see in the bride or does it serve an actual purpose? I guess what I'm trying to figure out is how do we as the boldly communicate the love of Christ and remain relevant to the culture but not feel like we are competing with everything else. Shouldn't the gospel be enough? Why do we feel like we need to dress it up to make it attractive? Are we looking at the church though cultural glasses or are we looking at culture through biblical glasses?

X-Men, I could use some help here!

"X-Men, I could use some help here!" "I don't have enough power to do that!" "C'mon let's see what you got!" These were the phrases that permeated from my TV yesterday as I did something I haven't done in years. Having the day off I decided to do nothing but play my roommate's X-Box. (X-men if you haven't figured that out) It wasn't so much a conscious decision, more of, "I'll play for a little bit then go clean my truck." (People who know me know this becomes my list of things to do when I plan on taking a nap.) The longer I played, the more I got into it. I can't remember playing a game so much since I got my first Nintendo just after they came out.

Before I knew it, it was 10:00 at night. I finally said enough was enough and turned off the game. I went to take out my contacts and noticed how blood shot my eyes were. I thought to myself, "This was a wasted day." Knowing I had to get up early the next morning, I went on to bed, thoughts of the game still running around in my head. I was thinking about what I could have done better. What did I miss? Part of me wanted to get out of bed and go back to playing so I could end on a more positive note, not on failing a level. I woke up several times during the night and what else things about the game would jump into my head. I'd close my eyes and see screen shots.

This morning I woke up, not really rested. I couldn't help but wake up and think about this game. This is not a super well-made game; I really shouldn't be thinking about it this much. A thought then came to mind, "If I put this much thought into knowing God, how much better would life be?" I began wondering, when was the last time that I spent all day just getting to know God better? When was the last time I closed my eyes and couldn't get to sleep because I couldn't help but think about the amazingness of God? For that matter when was the last time I couldn't sleep because I was pondering something Jesus said in the Bible? When was the last time I woke up in the morning and think of nothing else but God being revealing in scripture?

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

?'s

I am a person who likes questions. I'm not such a big fan of answering them, I just like asking them. I began taking my student house to a new church in January. It's College Wesleyan which is on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University. In March the Pastor, Steve DeNeff, began a series call, "...that IS the Question." He talked about the questions that Jesus asked and the questions that the disciples asked. . Jesus asked a lot of questions. He even answered a lot of questions with more questions. Which usually led to more questions by the disciples.

When I began to ponder this, I realized how much I like to ask a lot of questions. A lot of them don't necessarily have answers, at least not readily available. Some of you who have read any of my blog my have noticed that they are pretty open ended. My purpose isn't to have or get answers. My purpose is to prod us to think about what's happening in the world around us. How does this relate to scripture? What would Jesus' reaction to this be?

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi...Where are you staying?"

"Come," he replied, "and you will see.