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The average North American consumer spends between 30 – 40 percent of their monthly income on home related expenses. Much of that same group rarely experiences any social interaction at all within that home with the exception of their immediate family.
We often justify the purchase of homes and lifestyles so that we will have enough space to have friends over, to “entertain”, or within the evangelical community to “use for ministry”. However, too often we end up working so much to pay for our financial over-extension that we never have the time or energy left over to engage in actually entertaining or “ministering” in our neighborhoods.
So if this significant investment of such a large portion of our financial resources is not truly being used for the sake of loving others well through acts of service and hospitality, thereby expanding the influence of the gospel within our immediate communities, are we then not doing so simply for the sake of narcissism and personal comfort?
May we see our sin and negligence towards Christ’s command to love neighbors well.
May we be grieved.
May we be driven in desperation to the compassion and mercy that only the cross of Christ provides.
And may we then, from that place of forgiveness and assurance of the Fathers good pleasure towards us, move forward into our communities, throwing open our arms as well as our front doors and love well those whom God has sovereignly placed in our path.
This past weekend was a festival filled extravaganza around the Birmingham area. There was The Preserve Jazz Festival in Hoover, the 8th annual Art in the Gardens at Aldridge Gardens, also in Hoover, and then there was the Magic City Brewfest held at Sloss Furnaces. Basically, if you weren’t out and about in and around Birmingham this weekend, you missed some amazing opportunities.
For my wife and I, the appointment on the calendar was for the Magic City Brewfest. Some friends of ours had extra tickets to this sold out event and invited us to tag along. While this may not necessarily have been a “normal” outing for us, the free tickets fit very nicely into our family budget and we really do enjoy spending time with the couple who invited us, so we gladly accepted.
There were several things that struck me about the day. First of all, contrary to popular belief, Birmingham and its residents are in no way shape or form an “over-churched” city. This is not to say that there are not segments or cultural pockets of our city that are not saturated. There seems to be no shortage of churches seeking to grow Christ’s kingdom by reaching people who dress like them, eat like them, smell like them, speak like them and agree with every conceivable point of doctrine and theology.
And of course, there is certainly a place for this. After all, men in khakis, loafers and golf shirts need the gospel too. However, if we only surround ourselves with echoes of what we already are convinced is “normal”, it becomes all too easy to slip into a continually shrinking community of individuals who simply “amen” our ever narrowing perspective.
Which, I guess, leads me to a second realization. Many within the churched culture do not spend time outside of our circles of social comfort very often. In short, we do not deal with “different” very well.
But what I witnessed on Saturday afternoon at a beer festival in downtown Birmingham was a church plant waiting to happen. The people there struck me as a crowd Jesus would have felt very much at home with. And those whom I had the opportunity to spend time with struck me, somewhat surprisingly I must confess, as a somewhat Jesus friendly crowd. (Of course they were a generally friendly crowd to begin with and became even “friendlier” as the day went on.)
About half way through the afternoon, I looked at my wife and wondered aloud, Where is the body of Christ followers pursuing this particular group of people? People like the guy with one argyle sock permanently tattooed from ankle to mid-calf on one leg. People like the young couple gently pulling their two toddlers behind them in their Radio Flyer wagon as they went from booth to booth sampling the various products on display. People like the molecular biologist who has a guitar case full of half finished verses and partial choruses at home, never bringing them out for public display because he wasn’t a “real” musician. People like the band member from one of the bands performing that day, who loves his wife and kids, faithfully shows up at work every day and spends all his free time playing multiple stringed instruments and perfecting his own home brew.
Will these individuals be reached by a community of believers who often pride themselves in a devotion to traditionalism and conformity to cultural norms over and above a devotion to Christ and a conformity to Biblical norms? Or will it take a return journey, past a church who often still pines for the “golden age” of the 1950’s, beyond the revivalism of the 18th and the 19th centuries, through the 16th century and all of the glory that was the Protestant Reformation, going all the way back to the 1st century and a wandering Palestinian preacher who made it a point to pursue those not welcomed within the acceptable circles of established religion of the day?
My brain is churning, my heart is enflamed, and my prayer is for Christ to invade and move among a people who do not yet know that they are a people. May the glory of the Lord illumine eyes that are dark and warm hearts that are cold, wherever they may be found.
